Book Reviewed: The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910, by Esther Crain

The Big Apple: Capturing the beauty and complexity of a city

This is a lavish and handsomely produced book that captures the beauty and the complexity of a city that is an embodiment of ambition, aspiration, dream, romance, and a good life for millions of immigrants who came from all over the world. Yet there was a dark side to the island of Manhattan. The tumultuous years of 1870 to 1910 were the formative years for a city that was reinventing itself to be the city of hope. At the height of the Civil War, the city was torn amidst loyalties, political power, greed, racism, antisemitism and institutional bigotry. Very few were spared from this darkens; even Irish immigrants were targeted.

From its humble beginnings as a Dutch trading post in 1624, the city rose to prominence as one of the greatest cities in the world. Author Esther Crain offers an excellent narrative of the turbulent growth and change in the life of the city in the late nineteenth century, at the height of the American Civil War. The book has colorful and vibrant illustrations, hundreds of rare photographs, paintings, newspaper prints, and aerial photographs. The author brings alive the voices, poverty, sufferings, and tragic stories of men, women and children long forgotten in a city that never sleeps.

A brief summary of the book is as follows: The story is narrated in seven chapters that deals with the beginning of the Civil War; confederate plan to burn down the city; the funeral procession of President Lincoln along the Broadway approaching the Union Square; young Theodore Roosevelt witnessing the funeral procession from his grandfather’s house on Broadway; the war fever grips the city and racism boils down the alleys and streets leading to deaths and destruction; the rise of the New York Stock Exchange; shameless moneymaking by rich and famous, building obscene amount of wealth and living in the lap of luxury when the rest of the population was living in hopelessness, poverty, suffering and death; gradual rise of the city from its distress, the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge helping trade, commerce and employment; The first subway train in 1870; the construction of the Statue of Liberty and the dedication ceremony attended by President Grover Cleveland; beginning of bustling little Germany called Kleindeutschland in city’s 14the street area; Mulberry Street and the emergence of Little Italy; Jewish immigrants and the Hester Street; Mott Street and Chinatown. A growing number of poor immigrants and the rise in the population of the city and limited tenements lead to call for reform by numerous journalists and some wealthy people like Nellie Bly, Charles Loring Brace, Lillian Wald, the Salvation Army and many others. Reforms helped some to relieve the growing pain but diseases like cholera and tuberculosis also hit the city with fear and serious health crisis.

By the end of nineteenth century, the modern metropolis started to come together. Growth in business and industries pumped energy into the city. The city started to grow with steel towers and numerous spectacular structures. Manhattan expands from east to west and south to north. Soon 56 municipalities joined forces with some dissent from citizens, but it became a 320 mile metropolis and doubled its population. The state’s new charter uniting the five boroughs of New York City commenced. The metropolis was already connected by elevated trains and telephones, and it would be linked by a giant subway system and new bridges and tunnels.

There are numerous color pictures, paintings and cartoons of historical interest which I did not take time itemize, but this is definitely a collector’s book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in the history of Manhattan.