The Almanac of New York City [Hardcover]

Kenneth T. Jackson (Editor), Fred Kameny (Editor), Sam Roberts (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231140622 | ISBN-13: 978-0231140621 | Publication Date: October 10, 2008

The Almanac of New York City is an innovative companion for urban enthusiasts. Nowhere else will you find the name of the city's first comptroller (Selah Strong) and Staten Island's most recently designated historic district (Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto) next to the city's best-attended cultural institution (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with five million visitors annually) and its lowest recorded temperature (15 degrees below zero in February 1934). The Almanac identifies the borough with the most residents who relocate to Palm Beach (Queens) and the borough with the highest number of Panamanian immigrants (Brooklyn). It lists where New York currently ranks in the cost of apartment rentals, the rate of obesity in each borough, the details of executions dating back to 1639, per capita income by borough, the longest-running Broadway shows, the winners of the Wanamaker Mile, and the location of celebrated grave sites. Compiled by two longtime historians of the city, The Almanac treats readers to a real New York story, a tale that will delight anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Big Apple's complex core.

(10/15/08)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Almanac of New York City, edited by the same team that brought us the Encyclopedia of New York City (1995), is a marvelous example of an information source that provides the facts and figures one knows one wants and also offers enough of the quirky, unexpected, and engaging information to pull readers into finding things they never thought they needed to know. The volume is divided into 14 topical sections, with tables of data presented both on a citywide and borough-specific level. The original source of the data is credited. Along with the expected information, the “Population” section has data on migration into and out of the city and the most popular baby names. “Public Health and Safety” includes obesity figures and fire and EMS calls. “Housing and Real Estate” includes data on city parks, “Crime and Justice” has a historical list of police commissioners, and “Education” has data on the endowments of New York City institutions of higher education. Also here are theater attendance, library circulation, sports records, birds and trees, and gravesites of the famous. No library in the Northeast should be without this reasonably priced guide. All other large public and academic libraries with any interest at all in New York City should seriously consider its purchase. --Danise Hoover

Review

No detail that contributes to the definition of New York has escaped Jackson and Kameny. Recommended.

(Library Journal )

A marvelous example of an information source that provides the facts and figures one knows one wants and also offers enough of the quirky, unexpected, and engaging information to pull readers into finding things they never thought they needed to know.

(Booklist )

More than a mere miscellany of statistics and figures... Recommended.

(Choice )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (October 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231140622
• ISBN-13: 978-0231140621
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,824,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Every NY'er should own a copy!, November 28, 2008

By 

J. Powell (Mid-Atlantic, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Almanac of New York City (Hardcover)

(Reviewed Paperback version)

The main reason I'm writing this review is to include this link to the paperback version of this book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231140630

For some reason, it doesn't appear when searching for "Almanac New York City" on the site. Since the hardbound version doesn't seem to be available, this is a reasonably priced alternative.

Now on to the contents.
Simply wonderful for the statistician. You kinda have to like "lists" of stuff for this to be meaningful to you. However, for NY'ers who've ever wondered the specific population of each borough and the ethnic breakdown of each, or the results of Mayoral elections for the last 150 years, or the Top 100 tallest buildings in the city. All of it is here, and great fun to simply flip through.

The authors were limited by space, so they needed to exclude some repetitive items, like weather temperature highs & lows for every day.
Understandable.
However, some of their charts could be improved in explanation and clarity. Such as Migration To and From specific Boroughs. For that, I'm bumping the rating down a star. The authors leave an email address for suggestions like that, and I'm sure they will receive a lot of suggestions for subsequent editions.

5.0 out of 5 stars Almanac of NYC, December 3, 2010

By 

Silver1969 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Almanac of New York City (Paperback)

Like the book, and I am completely satisfied with the distributor who delivered what was promised....a great book in great condition! Thank you!

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine But Not For Serious Research, August 12, 2009

By 

Jorge F. Reynolds - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Almanac of New York City (Paperback)

This has been a real help over the past 8 months, not just for finding a specific number but more ofter for keeping an accurate overview - when the papers present a new [to me] 'fact', the Almanac gives me comparative information against which I can judge the importance of the 'new' datum.
That said, it really isn't deep or broad enough for use in a news room or library. About 3 decades ago one of our colleges, The New School I think, published an excellent Folio-sized paperback that seemed to me to almost match the Statistical Abstract for detail, but my copy fell apart after 10 years heavy usage and, more importantly, it was never updated