Footprints in New York: Tracing The Lives Of Four Centuries Of New Yorkers

by James Nevius, Michelle Nevius

Overview

New York City experts James and Michelle Nevius explore the lives of two dozen iconic New Yorkers, including Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, Central Park architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, business titan JP Morgan, and music legend Bob Dylan. Beginning with the oldest building in NYC, a 1652 farmhouse in Brooklyn, and journeying all the way to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the book follows in the footsteps of notable New Yorkers across all five boroughs. How did the city help Abraham Lincoln win the presidency? Where in Manhattan did Edgar Allan Poe compose “The Raven”? How was an area like Soho experienced by Mary Todd Lincoln, or Jane Jacobs, or Woody Allen? One part history and one part personal narrative, Footprints in New York traces the city’s story from the Dutch village below Wall Street to the Mean Streets of Martin Scorsese, creating a different way of looking at the past.
Visit www.footprintsinny.com for more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762796366
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Authors of Inside the Apple, James and Michelle Nevius have been putting their historical knowledge to work leading guided walking tours of New York City since 2000. Every tour is a mix of architecture, history, art, and culture, with a focus on uncovering hidden history and intriguing facts and stories not readily apparent to the casual visitor. Tours are rigorously researched and constantly evolving.Michelle and James's tour business has drawn a loyal following. Their guided talks have been a feature of many academic programs, including the Columbia School of Journalism; the New York School of Law; Siena College in Albany; and Texas A&M's Mays School of Business. Regular clients include Brown Brothers Harriman, Fordham University alumni, the Hofstra University Museum of Art, HF Holidays (one of the UK's top travel agencies), Beyond Times Square (a New York-based travel company), the Consular Women's Club (the wives of U.N. diplomats), Broadway Across America (a national theater tourism agency), along with hundreds of couples, families, corporate groups, and historically minded sightseers in New York.Michelle holds a Bachelor's and two Masters Degrees in Ancient History, Art History, and Archaeology from Columbia University and has taught art history to undergraduates at Columbia and Hunter College, CUNY.Michelle and James have each been quoted as New York City experts in the New York Times, Time Out New York, amNY, the Chicago Tribune, the Australian, and the Associated Press. They have appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show, Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio, WCBS AM, WFUV's award-winning show Cityscape, and on C-SPAN2's Book TV program. In 2012, James appeared as a New York City expert on Discovery Network's new program Curious and Unusual Deaths. In the past, they have been invited to guest blog at the New York Times on the history of Manhattan and at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the city's premiere destination for immigrant history.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Chapter 1 Shadows of Shadows: Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch Frontier 1

Chapter 2 The Dissenters 15

Chapter 3 The DeLanceys and New York's Lost Century 27

Chapter 4 Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Death of a Patriot 43

Chapter 5 DeWitt Clinton and the Making of the Modern City 63

Chapter 6 Gertrude Tredwell: At Home in Greenwich Village 77

Chapter 7 "A Ghastly Poverty": Edgar Allan Poe 91

Chapter 8 The Birth of Central Park 105

Chapter 9 Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 121

Chapter 10 Boss Tweed 137

Chapter 11 Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Wharton: Tales of the Gilded Age 155

Chapter 12 How the Other Half Lived 171

Chapter 13 Seth Low: From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Big City 184

Chapter 14 The City of Morgan 199

Chapter 15 The Liberators: Harlem, Greenwich Village, and the American Left 213

Chapter 16 Peace through Trade: The Rockefellers and the Modern City 225

Chapter 17 The Battle for New York: Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses 239

Chapter 18 "City Like a Web": Bob Dylan and MacDougal Street 255

Chapter 19 New York Stories: Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen 265

Maps 279

Acknowledgments 288

Notes on Sources 290

Photo Credits 305

Index 306

Editorial Reviews

"Footprints in New York has some of the sharpest, most informative meditations on the history of the city that I have encountered in a long time.” - Edwin G. Burrows, Pulitzer-Prize winning co-author of Gothamand author of Forgotten Patriots.

 “New York City’s history is fantastically deep and rich. Despite the best efforts of the city’s developers and political powers to obliterate it all, there’s still much of it left to see and many stories to tell—if you have the right guides. You'll find none better than James and Michelle Nevius in this ingeniously conceived, thoroughly informed, and companionably written time machine of a book.”
—John Strausbaugh, author of The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village  
 

“Reading Footprints in New York is like wandering through the city’s history with smart friends. The pages are full of compelling details that mesh together in surprising ways, and throughout shines true affection: you sense that Michelle and James Nevius are rightly proud of New York for being America’s most fascinating place.”
—TM Rives, author of Secret New York: An Unusual Guide

“I truly love Footprints in New York. I couldn’t stop reading, even when I was reading about things I already knew. James and Michelle Nevius made me feel like I was with them on a personal tour.”
—Mitch Broder, author of Discovering Vintage New York: A Guide to the City’s Timeless Shops, Bars, Delis & More

“With lightly carried erudition and the skills born of guiding many visitors—as well as curious natives—James and Michelle Nevius will take you by the hand and tell you amazing true tales. They are the Marco Polos of New York City.”- Mac Griswold, author of The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

Praise for Inside the Apple:

“A smart and entertaining window on the city of the past.” —The New York Times

 "I can't wait to walk Manhattan again with this book in hand." — Noah D. Oppenheim, coauthor of the bestselling The Intellectual Devotional™ series

 “As a longtime New Yorker, I never tire of walking the streets and uncovering something new about the world’s most fascinating city, where every street has a story to tell. Inside the Apple is a gem of a book, filled with nuggets about New York’s extraordinary past, from the sidewalks up. Whether you are a tourist exploring for the very first time or a seasoned walker in the city, this book is a must.” - — Kenneth C. Davis, author of the bestsellers America's Hidden History and Don't Know Much About ® History

 

From the Publisher