
Epub | Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America |
By | |
ISBN | 1416550194 |
ISBN-13 | 9781416550198 |
Publication | 19 June 2025 |
Number of Pages | 784 |
Format Type | Hardcover |
PDF Supreme city-data There is a map of the Midtown region with the the locations of places covered in the book It has an extensive bibliography and notes as well as a good index I appreciate that a lot 784 This is a well documented and highly readable social political history of a key period in New York City s history the 1920s The reader meets the fascinating characters who helped make New York the powerful force it has become in our nation and our cultural history This book effectively straddles academic and popular history and provides an interesting portrait of Jazz era NYC 784 This is a huge book that has put me behind in my reading schedule but it was worth every page of it What a fascinating history of one of the world s most exciting times in one of the world s most exciting citiesthe Jazz Age 1920 s and early 30s in New York City The author begins that history with the day the Gentleman Jimmy Walker became the popular playboy mayor of the citypeople loved him because he ignored Prohibition and his romantic dalliances were grist for the gossip mill But regardless of his faults.
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The richest city in the richest country in the world the Great War had displaced London s financial capital to New York The city was already self sufficient through mostly real estate tax and real estate speculation and the economy of building kept the city financially strong and ever growing Probably my favorite part of the book was about Vanderbilt s history with the city s trains and the eventual moving of the trains to an electrified underground which was cleaner easier to repair and allowed for a building boom above ground where there had previously been 16 blocks of railyard From that point onward there was a midtown building boom including skyscraper wars that probably had no rival until the 21st century in Asia The author delves into the personalities who reconfigured the area including William J Wilgus engineer of the New York Central train lines the two men behind the gem of all skyscrapers Walter P Chrysler and architect Willam Van Alen developer Benjamin Winter who bought and demolished the great mansions of 5th Ave Anne Vanderbilt and Anne Morgan fled 5th Ave mansion to revitalize Sutton Place as a well heeled Sapphic enclave Fred F French developer of utopian skyscraper development Tudor City and proponent of small share investment in his vertically integrated construction firm which ensured high quality production and a guaranteed profit for investors and Samuel Roxy Rothafel the visionary exhibitor who pioneered lavish presentations of silent films including movie palaces and full orchestras and who also became a radio personality in the 1930s and Clifford Holland who built the tunnel that allowed trucks in and out of the city which began the de industrialization of Manhattan. Supreme citizen Change was afoot in all places in society Women became comfortable going out without male escorts The rich gave up their mansions on 5th Ave to live in Park Ave apartment houses Much of the social life in the 1920s was spent in active opposition to Prohibition which New Yorkers often felt was an edict from small town hicks trying to tell them what to do The politicians were not particularly supportive of it and enforcement was less than half hearted One of the stellar personalities the author introduced to me was Texas Guinan a former vaudevillian who became perhaps the greatest speakeasy nightclub proprietor on her day Boundaries collapsed in the 1920s and in New York there was a new breed of second generation Americans on the rise whose parents were among the great huddled masses of the late 19th century The author points out that in the same year that a Russian Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side Irving Berlin married a Long Island society girl the name Cohen surpassed Smith as the most common name in the New York City phone book The first half of this book greatly expanded my knowledge of Manhattan as it explained in great detail how it developed in the early 20th century particularly with the building boom in the midtown area with its development of the transportation system we recognize today in addition to the cultural mecca it became for theatre broadcasting and writing of all kinds I apprecieted the biographical sketches of Duke Ellington and Jack Dempsey the most However as the book went on it outstayed its welcome The level of detail that I appreciated in the beginning became overkill by the end I probably could have done with much less on Florenz Ziegfield William Paley and the world of publishing In the beginning once the book got past mayor Jimmy Walker I could see how the larger than life characters with grand ambitions did set the tone for the modern American city as the book s title suggests In the second half of the book I felt that the author was being too thorough in trying to represent all areas of American culture It became encyclopedic and not in the good way 784 A supreme story excellently told Especially for a New Yorker who possesses only general information about such topics as why there s so many skyscrapers around Grand Central that boxing and musical comedy both came into their own in the 192os along with movies and tabloid newspapers and radio this book tells amazing stories and succinct biographies of the great movers and shakers who made NYC into it s 20th century self Architecture sport publishing the Lindbergh solo flight Prohibition the rise and fall of Mayor Jimmy Walker the genesis of Tudor City the design and building of bridges and tunnels and much are brought to life with nary a dull passage 784 If Miller is correct and I think he is New York is the modern Rome and all roads have led FROM her starting in the 1920s Thus wonderful complex books illustrates the complex jigsaw puzzle that is and was NYC and how that hothouse environment fostered change is everything from business to jazz to politics to literature toI HIGHLY recommend this work to anyone curious about 20th Century America in all its diversity 784 In this unusual book the author attempts to create a mosaic of NYC in the 1920s Instead of tiles Miller fashions his work from numerous short biographies of the individuals behind many of the era s most notable institutions and happenings In other words he selects a multitude of the decade s important events buildings and businesses e. Supreme cityiq bellingham the Dempsey Tunney fights Grand Central Terminal and Bergdorf Goodman and then gives a short bio of the personage s behind each This approach is generally entertaining but does not create a clear overall image One sees the trees but not really the forest 784 I ve lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn since 1978 and New York City has been my center of gravity even during my childhood in a small suburban town Although it focuses on a much earlier era than my own this book does a fine job of conveying the excitement and allure of the city that I felt especially in my early years here but continue to experience to this day Here is a widescreen portrait of Manhattan in the 1920s primarily through detailed profiles of a broad assortment of figures who were making their mark on the city during those years Miller describes lives of NYC politicians bootleggers gamblers nightclub owners architects real estate moguls journalists publishers radio broadcasters sports figures and on and on While there is less focused attention on common folk he does manage to convey a feeling for life among those who are not moving and shaking the city as well Miller is sometimes a tad repetitious of the myriad of characters he includes in the book he typically starts with a fairly extensive initial overview Typically Miller is only getting started He ll then go back and tell you much about the person including a retread of the incidents that he d earlier related at the start Many times this worked for me but sometimes it felt like much information that I wanted and repetitious Nevertheless the writing is interesting and lively Among the many high points for me was his discussion of the men who worked on building the skyscrapers that were going up all around the city including the Mohawk Indians who traveled down from their homes and families in Canada While not always drawing the lines explicitly it was easy to see the basis for Miller s subtitle so many of the changes and innovations that took place first in New York at that time readily radiated outward to then transform much of the country 784 Of the 33 people on Miller s Cast of Characters at the beginning of the book only 7 were actually born in NYC Two were born in New York State 14 were from other states 10 were from other countries In one of the epigraphs to the book Miller quotes E. Book Supreme citytime login B White saying that there are three New Yorks the one of the person born here the one of the person commuting here and the one who was born somewhere else and comes to New York in quest of something Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last the city of final destination the city that is the goal It is this third city that accounts for New York s high strung disposition its poetical deportment its dedication to the arts and its incomparable achievements. Book Supreme city national This the tale of those cities from cosmetic queens to nightclubs from skyscrapers to newspapers Miller s New York is wonderfully evocative and complete It is amazing how he keeps the book together even as he moves from subject to subject from person to person Worth reading for anyone who loves NY or who just loves cities 784 I received this book compliments of Simon Schuster through the Goodreads First Reads program. Book Supreme citytime login Miller began research on a history of New York City between the World Wars but found himself drawn to the story of Midtown Manhattan in the Twenties Quite a story it is There were big changes in so many areas of business and culture that affected the entire country with New York leading the way. Book Supreme citywide Some readers may find the very beginning of the book slow going as Miller explains the workings of New York politics both Tammany Hall and the Republicans but it is good background to understanding other sections of the book Politics played a large role in Prohibition which in turn had a major part in the changing attitudes of the public Radio needed both technology and content and business set about providing both Sports and entertainment needed promoters and the reporters and news outlets to spread the word The book delves into these and many other subjects explaining how they touched and intermingled with each other just as the personalities interacted Many of these people were stories unto themselves most very driven it was during this time that the city began changing into what we know today The movement of business to mid town the relocation of factories and slaughterhouses across the river to New Jersey and the beginning of the age of the skyscraper. Supreme City kindle reader Power and Politics Crime and Prohibition The Making of Modern Manhattan Bringing In The Future and Jazz Age Icons In these sections he covers everything from the Garment District to the Ziegfeld Follies This is a wonderful book informative and beautifully written even if it does end rather abruptly Highly recommended 784 This book is long but its length is in the service of being comprehensive The reader really breathes the air of that time of possibility with the figures the author profiles is at their elbow as they make the crucial and risky decisions which bit by bit constructed the modern age 784
Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America By Donald L. Miller |
1416550194 |
9781416550198 |
English |
784 |
Hardcover |
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But not all of them exactly disciplined It all makes for a really good read I have not done justice to this book It is very well done, Supreme cityfheps documents Original in concept deeply researched and utterly fascinating Supreme City transports readers to that time and to the city which outsiders embraced in E.g.This history is divided into five parts..