Customer Reviews

The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an essential book for anyone who lives in or plans to visit New York City. The first 22 pages give a succinct but by no means shallow history of immigration to New York, beginning with the earliest slaves arriving in New Amsterdam in 1626 to the latest arrivals of Hispanics and Asians in the later years of the 20th century. The remainder of the book consists of four self-guided walking tours, each approximately 2 hours long, through 4 different neighborhoods of the Lower East Side. The description of each tour begins with directions for arriving at the starting point by public transportation--a helpful bit of information. Among the various sites on the tour are the birthplace of Eddie Cantor, the first municipal-built playground in the U.S., the place where Arthur Murry took his first dance steps, the library that Leon Trostsky used when he lived in NY in 1917, and the Wah Mei Bird Garden, where caged Asian song thrushes fill the morning air with song. The book is small enough to carry around easily. The index is especially good. The photographs, new and old, give a sense of the city both today and yesterday. This is a friendly book.

I found this book to be an incredible resource for me, in my wanderings around the City. From the history of the African burial grounds to finding the best doughnuts, this is a great book. I read most of it from my couch, but then took it with me when I went looking for Napoleon Le Brun firehouses. The details of the history are among the best I've seen published.

I often visited New York on business for three or four days and each time would try to take in some of the cultural, but also a feel for the ethnic neighborhoods and history of the city. This book has added insight and drama to my brief excursions. It is easy to follow and touches all the pertinent items for understanding what the neighborhoods were and you can get a feel of what they meant to the future of a great city, and what they continue to mean. The book acts as a true guide without any embellishment and therefore every page gives meaning to what you are viewing. I would not dream of going back to the lower east side, which I intend to do many more times, without this book in hand. Kudos to Joyce Mendelsohn !!!

This book is a lesson in family roots through the streets of the lower east side. It is a wonderful trip through the past and present walking by architectural treasures and memories of our forefathers. This author has done some remarkable research on this lesser known NYC area attraction.

This affectionate, richly illustrated little book celebrates and guides us through the unique and legendary neighborhood -- Manhattan's Lower East Side -- that has served generations of immigrants from around the world as "the gateway to the American Dream."

Written by one of the most popular of New York's scholarly historic tour leaders (she also served from 1992-94 as Director of Education at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum), the text is organized as a set of overlapping walking tours of the district. But with her deep knowledge of her subject, Mendelsohn easily transcends the guidebook genre. What she give us here is an original, insightful, wonderfully satisfying history, fairly overflowing with the personalities, anecdotes, institutions and images that have made the Lower East Side a legendary New York neighborhood and a cornerstone of the immigrant experience -- especially, but far from exclusively, the Jewish immigrant experience -- in America.

Joyce Mendelsohn gives an excellent walking tour of the Lower East Side pointing out landmarks with interesting facts and accurate accounts of the rich history here. Anyone who lives on the Lower East Side or whose relatives came from the Lower East Side should read this book complete with period and modern photographs. I loved it.

Even if you can't visit the bakeries and restaurants of the Lower East Side (and you should) you can enjoy the ethnic flavors by reading Joyce Mendelsohn's book. Like the best historians, she tells stories of the past from a present-day perspective. New York is a city of remakes, architectural and cultural--Mendelsohn combines both. As a former History teacher, I recommend it for a good read.

Whether you live in New York City and want to understand how to synchronize your life with the city's rhythm, or you are just a visitor eager to taste both the past and the present of one of America's most vibrant neigborhoods-the Lower East Side-this book is an excellent companion.