Gotham Rising

New York in the 1930s

Jules Stewart author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:10th Dec '20

£22.99

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

Gotham Rising cover

A history of New York City during the 1930s as it recovered from the Depression and underwent significant change.

Often described as the greatest city in the world, New York is one of the iconic cities of the world. Yet much of its architecture and culture which so defines the city we know today only came into being in the 1930s, in what was perhaps the most significant decade in the city’s 400 year history. Jules Stewart shows how, after the roaring twenties, the catastrophic Wall Street Crash and ensuing Depression, New York rose from the ashes and underwent an architectural, economic, social and creative renaissance under the leadership of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. After seizing power, he declared war on the mafia mobs running vast swathes of the city, attacked political corruption and kick-started the economy through a variety of construction and infrastructure projects. At the same time, a cultural revolution was underway as the jazz age and the Harlem Renaissance took hold. From the Empire State Building to the Pastrami Sandwich and the Cotton Club, Gotham Rising tells the story of when the city we know today came of age.

[This] book may not be revelatory for many New York aficionados, but its historical digressions, nuggets of forgotten footnotes and the stark contradictions in a city ascendant — but also disproportionately poor, homeless and unemployed — make for riveting reading. * The New York Times *
'Gotham Rising is an insightful look at what New York was like in the 1930s. Jules Stewart takes you from the Great Depression right up to the beginning of World War II' * Manhattan Book Review *
Filled with enticing details and vivid portraits of the titans who drove New York in the 1930s, Gotham Rising is a delightful romp through one of the city's most dynamic eras. Jules Stewart deftly weaves history with heroes and villains, with fascinating tales of LaGuardia, F.D.R., and Robert Moses, as well as the men who built the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. * Eric Schmitt, Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times correspondent *
"From its opening irreverent quotations from John Steinbeck and E. B. White, Jules Stewart's Gotham Rising: New York in the Thirties offers a roguish romp through a remarkable decade that in many ways still defines much about the great American metropolis...The Harlem Renaissance, Greenwich Village bohemia, Tammany Hall politics, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and all the larger-than-life figures directing so much of the action it's an amazing story, well worth telling.' * Anthony W. Robins, author of New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gothams Jazz Age Architecture *

ISBN: 9781350185944

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 508g

296 pages