Shows vividly how the Great Fire of 1835, which nearly leveled Manhattan also created the ashes from which the city was reborn.On a freezing December night almost two centuries ago, a fire erupted in lower Manhattan. The city's inhabitants, though accustomed to blazes in a town with so many wooden structures, a spotty water supply, and a decentralized fire department, looked on in horror at the scale of this one. Philip Hone, a
former mayor of New York, wrote in his diary how "the progress of the flames, like flashes of lightning, communicated in every direction, and a few minutes sufficed to level the lofty edifices on every side." By the
time the fire was extinguished, a huge swath of land had been transformed from a thriving business center into the "Burnt District," an area roughly the same size as was devastated during the September 11th attack. In the end, nearly 700 buildings were destroyed. So vast was the conflagration that it was immediately and henceforth known as the Great Fire of 1835. Manhattan Phoenix reveals how New York emerged from the disaster to become a global powerhouse merely
a quarter of a century later. Daniel S. Levy's book charts the city's almost miraculous growth during the early 19th century by focusing on the topics that shaped its destiny, starting with fire but including
water, land, disease, culture, and politics, interweaving the lives of New Yorkers who took part in its transformation. Some are well-known, including the land baron John Jacob Astor. Others less so, as with the Bowery Theatre impresario Thomas Hamblin and the African-American restaurateur Thomas Downing. The book celebrates Fire Chief James Gulick, who battled the Great Fire, examines the designs of the architect Alexander Jackson Davis who built marble palaces for the rich, follows the
abolitionist Arthur Tappan, chronicles the career of the merchant Alexander Stewart, and reveals how the engineer John Bloomfield Jervis succeeded in bringing clean water into homes. The city's resurrection
likewise owed much to such visionaries as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who designed Central Park, creating the refuge that it remains to this day.Manhattan Phoenix offers the story of a city rising from the ashes to fulfill its destiny to grow into one of the world's greatest metropolisesDLand in no small part due to catastrophe. It is, in other words, a New York story.
Shows vividly how the Great Fire of 1835, which nearly leveled Manhattan also created the ashes from which the city was reborn.On a freezing December night almost two centuries ago, a fire erupted in lower Manhattan. The city's inhabitants, though accustomed to blazes in a town with so many wooden structures, a spotty water supply, and a decentralized fire department, looked on in horror at the scale of this one. Philip Hone, a
former mayor of New York, wrote in his diary how "the progress of the flames, like flashes of lightning, communicated in every direction, and a few minutes sufficed to level the lofty edifices on every side." By the
time the fire was extinguished, a huge swath of land had been transformed from a thriving business center into the "Burnt District," an area roughly the same size as was devastated during the September 11th attack. In the end, nearly 700 buildings were destroyed. So vast was the conflagration that it was immediately and henceforth known as the Great Fire of 1835. Manhattan Phoenix reveals how New York emerged from the disaster to become a global powerhouse merely
a quarter of a century later. Daniel S. Levy's book charts the city's almost miraculous growth during the early 19th century by focusing on the topics that shaped its destiny, starting with fire but including
water, land, disease, culture, and politics, interweaving the lives of New Yorkers who took part in its transformation. Some are well-known, including the land baron John Jacob Astor. Others less so, as with the Bowery Theatre impresario Thomas Hamblin and the African-American restaurateur Thomas Downing. The book celebrates Fire Chief James Gulick, who battled the Great Fire, examines the designs of the architect Alexander Jackson Davis who built marble palaces for the rich, follows the
abolitionist Arthur Tappan, chronicles the career of the merchant Alexander Stewart, and reveals how the engineer John Bloomfield Jervis succeeded in bringing clean water into homes. The city's resurrection
likewise owed much to such visionaries as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who designed Central Park, creating the refuge that it remains to this day.Manhattan Phoenix offers the story of a city rising from the ashes to fulfill its destiny to grow into one of the world's greatest metropolisesDLand in no small part due to catastrophe. It is, in other words, a New York story.
I. Prologue
II. Fire
III. Ash
IV. Land
V. Trade
VI. Marble
VII. Water
VIII. Grime
IX. Firemen
X. People
XI. Retreat
XII. Rebirth
Daniel S. Levy is a senior writer for Life Books, which is part of
Dotdash Meredith Premium Publishing. He has written on such topics
as World War I, Anne Frank, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the
Civil War, Robert F. Kennedy and the Women of the Bible. Prior to
that he was a senior reporter at Time magazine where he covered
architecture and classical music, and a reporter at People
magazine, where he wrote about social
issues and crime. In 1997 Levy wrote Two-Gun Cohen, a biography of
Morris Cohen, an English adventurer who became a general in the
Chinese army, fought the Japanese during World War II and following
the war was one of the few people who was
able to travel between Communist China and Taiwan.
A superb work of urban history that crackles with the heat and
smoke of Manhattan's devastating fires and probes the genius,
vision—sometimes villainy—of the men who shaped its destiny during
these crucial years. Daniel Levy's infectious love for his native
city infuses every line.
*Tom Sancton, author of The Bettencourt Affair and The Lost
Baron*
A captivating history that shows how modern New York City emerged
from an early-nineteenth-century whirlwind of fire and disease,
riot and racism, construction and demolition, and general
mayhem.
*Fran Leadon, author of Broadway: A History of New York City in
Thirteen Miles*
Nineteenth-century New York both embodied America and transcended
it. Manhattan Phoenix is a vivid account of the city in the years
leading through the Civil War, and Daniel Levy has seamlessly woven
a history that reveals how it became a major world center while
combating plagues, fires and election fraud. Manhattan Phoenix
shows why New York is unique and how it became so.
*Richard Stengel, author of Information Wars and Mandela's Way*
This is a well-researched account.
*Choice*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
