Gotham

A History of New York City to 1898

By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe.

In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. Listeners will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant's despotic regime, Indian wars, slave resistance and revolt, the Revolutionary War and the defeat of Washington's army on Brooklyn Heights, the destructive seven years of British occupation, New York as the nation's first capital, the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, the Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads, the growth of the city as a port and financial center, the infamous draft riots of the Civil War, the great flood of immigrants, the rise of mass entertainment such as vaudeville and Coney Island, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the birth of the skyscraper. Here too is a cast of thousands - the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Clement Moore, who saved Greenwich Village from the city's street-grid plan; Herman Melville, who painted disillusioned portraits of city life; and Walt Whitman, who happily celebrated that same life. We meet the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Boss Tweed and his nemesis, cartoonist Thomas Nast; Emma Goldman and Nellie Bly; Jacob Riis and Horace Greeley; police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt; Colonel Waring and his "white angels" (who revolutionized the sanitation department); millionaires John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and William Randolph Hearst; and hundreds more who left their mark on this great city.

The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America, and a book that will mesmerize everyone interested in the peaks and valleys of American life as found in the greatest city on earth. Gotham is dazzling, a fast-paced, brilliant narrative that carries the listener along as it threads hundreds of stories into one great blockbuster of a book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©1999 Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Enlightening & Throrough

New York City has had such a vast impact on the country as a whole as to make this a must read for anyone interested in the history of the United States. I’ve never been to New York and I still very much enjoyed listening to this book.

Looking to understand America, this is a must!

If you want to understand this country and what roles American’s played init this is the book for you! If you want to know New York City roles in making America great again this book is for you. Looking just to know more about the city and the surrounding area it’s for you. Your a New Yorker but don’t know much about our history this book is just great!

A Bit Busy

Overall a good book and I’m glad to have read it, but the deluge of data was a bit overwhelming at times, especially with the narrators occasionally flat narration… best enjoyed slowly

the most comprehensive and inspiring history.

loved this book. read it first, then listened to it. unparalleled. should be the starting point for any amateur historians entry into the world of nyc history.

Great outline of NYC history through 1899

A must listen for everyone interested in NYC history - Burrow’s long books touch on so many things and lead to even more time down rabbit holes of Brooklyn or even English history.