Picturing New York

"Mining five centuries of urban archives to craft her multi-faceted chronicle, Deak offers fourteen mini-histories, each of which can be read independently of the others. In Picturing New York the author explores the city's multiple birth (it was named and renamed five times), the religious pluralism the city enjoyed as a struggling trading post, the marketing and merchandising that propelled its development, and the rise of the arts, literature, architecture, and sports." "Here, too, the author investigates components of urban growth ranging from the founding of schools and universities to the deep polarities between the lives of the moneyed classes and penniless masses; from the genesis of the great city parks to the construction of the gargantuan subway system."--BOOK JACKET.