The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York City's History - Softcover

Homberger, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805060049 ISBN 13: 9780805060041

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

A New York Public Library Outstanding Reference Book

A visual celebration of nearly 400 years of New York City's history.

To celebrate the one-hundredth anniversay of Greater New York, what Alfred Kazin calls "a treasure of a book" is now a gorgeous paperback. The New York Times Book Review raved that The Historical Atlas of New York City "may be as close to a printed CD-ROM as paper can get." Now, this visual cornucopia of full-color maps, charts, photographs, and drawings covering four hundred years of the city's history is a trade paperback. Neighborhood by neighborhood, the Atlas takes the reader back through history, detailing such crucial events as the initial settlement of 270 people in thirty log houses; John Jacob Astor's meteoric rise from humble fur trader to the richest and most powerful man in the city; Frederick Law Olmsted's design for Central Park; and the fascinating ethnic mix of modern Queens. For both history buffs and the twenty-five million people who visit New York each year, The Historical Atlas of New York City is the guide to America's first city.

About this title

Review:

Eric Homberger's The Historical Atlas of New York City shows what can be achieved within a very narrow frame of discussion. With just one city to depict, Homberger explores the rich variety of details in the city's 400-year history with vivid drawings and illustrations as well as beautifully rendered maps. The atlas takes on the geologic history of New York, major eras (Indian, Dutch, and British), and the formative 19th century, as well as the consolidation of Greater New York, neighborhood histories of Coney Island and Greenwich Village, and the Big Apple exploits of 1945 through 1996. But there's room for the small stuff, too, such as the political and cultural role of New York's taverns in the late 1700s. --Stephanie Gold

About the Author:

Eric Homberger received his doctorate in American studies from Cambridge University and is reader in American studies at the University of East Anglia. Alice Hudson is curator of the Map Division of the New York Public Library.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805060049
• ISBN 13: 9780805060041
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Illustrator: Hudson Alice