Customer Reviews

The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

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

 

 

"The Park and the People" is an exquisite work of scholarship. I've read much about the park but nothing approaches the depth of knowledge and insight contained in this extraordinary book. It's provocative, exciting, extremely well written, and downright readable. I learned something new on every page and simply could not put it down.

This is not just a wonderful study of the park itself but a wonderful route into the social world of 19th century new york....one of the points of the book is that the park's boundaries were never natural, however naturalistic the winning design, but were, in the broadest sense, political. What remains today in the park was always fought over and contested.

No park has been so exhaustively researched, photographed and documented as this 843 acre oasis. So in saying this book stands out, I'm really saying something. This history of this park is just fascinating and the photos are just wonderful, Mr. Rosenzweig does fine research and it shows, his love for the park is evident in his writing and it makes the book all the more enjoyable. Central Park is the heart of the city, and to understand New York you really need to understand the history of the park. A New York without a Central Park is just unimaginable. I highly recommend this book.

There are several good books about Central Park, but this book, along with Sara Cedar Miller's "Central Park, An American Masterpiece" are among the very best.

"The Park and the People: A History of Central Park" is an exhaustive study, without being exhausting. Generously peppered with wonderful illustrations, the book will entice people who had never visited the 800+ acre park to see it. And it will intrigue those people who use the park every day, to look at it with a more insightful eye. This beautiful park has now gotten a beautiful narrative to complement and compliment it. And take Amazon's advice and purchase Miller's book along with this one!

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points

Like Captain Renault in Casablanca who is "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!", Rosenzweig and Blackmar are stunned time and again in prose over 500 plus pages to find that individuals and interest groups often do not pursue goals out of altruism -- although there is sometimes a public benefit to the outcomes sought -- but rather out of what they see as their self-interest. In the authors view, that pursuit of self-interest is OK for some, but not OK for others, such as the individuals who first conceived of the park, who should -- they appear to believe -- be held accountable to a higher standard of broad societal good. It's like the authors don't get that one of the things democracy is all about is precisely the clash of competing interests. And out of that clash come imperfect resolutions, as Central Park was and is. But the larger point is that, while imperfect, nearly everybody can find something in the park for themselves while over the last 25 years all have benefitted as the park has grown steadily more hospitable and well-maintained.

I appreciated that The Park and the People provided me with a lot of new and interesting facts about the history of the park, and the authors are particularly good in restoring Calvert Vaux to his rightful place as a full partner of Olmsted in the Greensward Plan. And they make a good point that the emphasis on Central Park can result in other less iconic parks in boroughs receiving fewer funds and less attention. Still, any book that is harsher on the Central Park Conservancy -- because it is a private initiative and therefore (R&B say) lessens public control of public space -- than on Boss Tweed -- whose rise is mainly touted as an example of broadened democratization in New York City -- has, in my view, a serious problem of perspective.