Customer Reviews

American Metropolis: A History of New York City

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The most notable aspect of this book is that it does not have a single map. For a reader seeking to understand how New York developed who is not familiar with present day New York and surrounding areas it makes for a frustrating time.

That said the book does provide a useful, readable overview of New York from first sighting to the 1990s. However, the book is weighted towards the present day: in fifty pages it moves from the early 1600s to the beginning of the 19th centuries. This means the description of the original development of New York is fairly scanty.

The author seems most interested in the politics of who will be mayor from the time that Tammany hall first played a part. This intensifies as we reach the 20th century when the detail on mayor after mayor can be a little boring.

Overall the book would be better with more even weighting across the centuries and more detail to developments in social life.

This is a good, comprehensive history of New York City in an easy-reading 260 page book. Although New York City is the most exciting city in the world, its history, if not written well, could be boring to many people. But Lankevich succeeded. This book is not boring, but rather held my interest until the end. Of course, many events are not addressed in the book or are barely touched upon because of its length, but Lankevich provides a good history for those that are not ready to tackle "Gotham," or some of the other massive histories of NYC that are out there.

The one comment I have, though, is that I thought Lankevich spent too much time discussing the "high history" of NYC mayors and politics. I would've enjoyed a more social history of NYC. But overall, this is a well-written, good book. Check it out and learn more today about the world's most amazing city today.

A read this book as a required text in a graduate school course on the History of New York City at Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y. This book gives good information about the history of N.Y.C. from the colonial times to the present. It covers the events during the various mayors of N.Y.C. Good for finding out information on New York's Mayors.