You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890's to World War II [Hardcover]

Jeff Kisseloff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1989

Daily life in Manhattan between the turn of the century and World War II is recounted in the voices of New Yorkers who grew up in those years. Kisseloff supplies brief historical introductions to each of the city's neighborhoods and photos of people and places.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first book, Manhattan journalist Kisseloff offers a torrent of verbatim recollections by long-time New Yorkers whose memories remain green, "as time goes by." The past emerges here not as history but as lived life in the vivid descriptions of immigrants and their descendants, who populated the widely varied sections of the metropolis. Hardly a melting pot, the city was divided into ethnic enclaves--Jewish, Chinese, Irish, German--each with an individual character. Mostly poor and uneducated, these new Americans were blessed with certain survival techniques, including a healthy sense of humor. There are also reminiscences by privileged citizens, notably the 1920s society flappers, and anecdotes about famous Manhattanites like Eugene O'Neill, Gene Tunney and Billie Holiday. Kisseloff provides graphic descriptions of neighborhoods, then and now, and the origins of such place names as Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Greenwich Village et al. But the lusty, sad, startling, funny, bawdy--even cruel--stories are so immediate one becomes convinced anew that New York is, as the song has it, a wonderful town. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Forget for the moment Manhattan as world center for art, theater, business, finance . . . and gaze at the "island of small towns" where Kisseloff, a journalist, preserves recollections of 137 ordinary New Yorkers. From the Upper East Side to Hell's Kitchen, he divides the city into ten areas, devoting a chapter and a dozen voices to each. The speakers are a diverse lot; many have lived through interesting events. The accounts are vivid and down to earth. We catch the distinct flavor of neighborhoods as they were. But this is an oral history; many more could be done without exhausting the subject. Necessarily subjective, the author's choice of interviewees (his father is one) subtly affects the total picture. Strengths and weaknesses of the oral history method are here: unique perspectives, the human touch; unverifiability, the flight from meaning. For libraries collecting social history.
- Priscilla E. Pratt, M.L.S., East Setauket, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 622 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151879885
• ISBN-13: 978-0151879885
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,193,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a trip back in time, March 13, 2000

By 

Neil deMause (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II (Paperback)

If that slow, plodding Ric Burns series on PBS was the official history of New York City, "You Must Remember This" is the indispensible people's history: actual voices from the turn of the century (the last century) telling what it was really like to live in the immigrant Lower East Side, the Hell's Kitchen waterfront, Jazz-era Harlem, the last stretches of rural Inwood. With this and "The Box," Kisseloff is hands-down the most perceptive and consistently fascinating oral historian I've read, and yes, that's counting Studs Terkel. Buy one for yourself, and one for a history-lovin' friend.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 19th century history buff, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II (Paperback)

one of the best written books on these subject thati have ever read, and i have read many.bits of history from those who lived it. no long boring pages, just short very useful and amusing stories. absolutely love this book. sorry it took me so long to order it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tree Grows In Manhattan, August 27, 2006

By 

Jim Teat (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II (Paperback)

Personal stories for readers who enjoyed Betty Smith's Brooklyn or Joseph Mitchell's character monologues. We see that America has always been built by English-as-a-second-language immigrants. It's not just Manhattan as much as it is the human experience.