“Here is a book sure to bring us up to speed on what took place in Manhattan before 1898, as far back as the ice age, when ‘packs of glaciers crept down from Labrador….The authors…glide easily around town, peeking inside brothels for working men in Five Points, then pressing noses to the gilt-edged windows of the uptown rich….Burrows and Wallace offer a large-canvas portrait of a city they clearly love.”–The New York Times Book Review
“Exceptionally readable…a spectacle, a cavalcade…much too well written to be merely an amalgam (although when synthesis is this monumental it is a massive scholarly achievement in itself.”–The New Yorker
“Gotham is splendid. The parade of characters is like rush hour.”–National Review
“This gigantic volume marvelously conveys the enterprise and enthusiasm that has fulled the world’s most exciting city from its earliest days.”–The Economist
“Gotham is a masterwork–a great tapestry of a book that weaves a vast array of personalities, dramatic episodes and illuminating ancedotes into a rich and colorful whole. This is a work not just for lovers of New York, but for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of American history….Happily, Burrows and Wallace are first-rate writers, fluid in their handling of the barebones statistics, enthralling in their handling of moments of high drama. Their vivid account of the draft riots of 1863, for example, is as blood-curdling as anything in a Stephen King thriller.”–Baltimore Sun
“A tome matching the size of its subject, this doorstopper more than justifies the 20 years Burrows and Wallace spent on it….Its massive size permits the inclusion of details, minor characters and anecdotes of everyday life that vibrantly communicate the city’s genesis and evolution. The authors have synthesized histories from various perspectives–cultural, economic, political, etc.–into a novelistic narrative, providing the context for stories of the diverse denizens who shaped the city…[A] historical work that merits the term ‘definitive’ yet still manages to entertain….’Gotham’ denotes a town of tricksters and fools, and this book is full of both….The rest will read with pleasure and await the companion volume’s promised appearance.”–Publishers Weekly
“A suitably vast, sprawling, and all-consuming history of the rapid evolution of New York City from primordial forest into the world’s most fabulous city….Linking economic, cultural, demographic, and political history, the authors trace the city’s development from a peripheral Dutch frontier post through its growth into a vital shipping point in the British mercantile system….Along the way the authors introduce a crazy quilt of characters from the political, industrial, cultural, and literary worlds, and from the underworld as well….Magisterial, colorful, meticulously researched, and richly detailed; destined to be the definitive history of early New York City.”–Kirkus Reviews
“Make no mistake: A comprehensive history of New York City is a bold undertaking, if not a foolish one. But Burrows and Wallace have pulled it off with style…. The authors are agile enough to bring to life the ‘uppertendom’ elite of antebellum New York as well as the world of the ‘b’hoy, ‘ the tough dandies who used to parade along the Bowery in the mid 19th-century.”–The Wall Street Journal
“Like one of the zeppellins that furturists imagined would lie tethered to the masts of New York skyscrapers, the narrative of Gotham hovers over the city, drifting along thematic currents, occasionally catching a cataclysmic gust: it drops in for a vivid close-up only to reascend, with equal aplomb, for a global panorama.”–The Los Angeles Times
“Monumental but never overwhelming: It is the work of master literary masons. The narrative is Romanesqye in its integrity and solidity of structure but reflects a Gothic precision in its detailing.”–ForeWord
“Extremely well written, this compelling drama beats most fiction in its ability to enchant and surprise.”–Kim Long, The Bloomsbury Review
“The most comprehensive examination to date of the city’s history prior to 1900…. The authors weave together the unique details of New York’s history with a generation’s worth of recent and original scholarship, insightfully reconceptualizing the city’s past. With publication of a second volume…Gotham may rank in importance with the multi-volume works on Thomas Jefferson by Dumas Malone and on the Civil War by Allan Nevins.”–The Atlantic Monthly
About the Author
Edwin G. Burrows is Professor of History at Brooklyn University, City University of New York. Mike Wallace is Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Together they have collaborated for twenty years to produve this book, the first volume in the definitive history of New York City
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