Taking Manhattan :
by Shorto, Russell
Edition statement:First edition. Published by : W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY) Physical details: xii, 390 pages illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. ISBN:9780393881165; 0393881164.| Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Notes | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900 - 999 | 974.7102 Sho (Browse shelf) | Available | State Grant in Aid | 115870 |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-371) and index.
Prologue: The view from the mountaintop -- Part one: Squaring off. The invader -- The defender -- Enemy waters -- Stuyvesant's error -- Part two: Settlement and exile. Rabbits on an anthill -- The trailblazer -- The exile -- Dorothea Angola -- Restoration London -- Part three: A game of chess. Doppelganger -- Gravesend -- The alchemist -- The delegation -- The effusion of Christian blood -- White flag -- "The town of Manhatans" -- Part four: The invention. Remaining English -- Merger -- Going Dutch -- The mystery.
The author of The Island at the Center of the World offers up a thrilling narrative of how New York--that brash, bold, archetypal city--came to be.
In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland's canny director general. Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery. The book draws from newly translated materials and illuminates neglected histories--of religious refugees, Indigenous tribes, and free and enslaved Africans. Taking Manhattan tells the riveting story of the birth of New York City as a center of capitalism and pluralism, a foundation from which America would rise. It also shows how the paradox of New York's origins--boundless opportunity coupled with subjugation and displacement--reflects America's promise and failure to this day. Russell Shorto, whose work has been described as "astonishing" (New York Times) and "literary alchemy" (Chicago Tribune), has once again mined archival sources to offer a vibrant tale and a fresh and trenchant argument about American beginnings.
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