Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1,383-page history of New York City until 1898. It is authoritative. It was written by Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace in New York City. It was also published in New York City (in 1999), fittingly.
The authors state, at the beginning of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 that the origins of a great city are often shrouded by mystery. They elucidate that mystery here for New York City. The book covers the development of New York City from the Ice Age to the dawn of the twentieth century. To do that, there are no fewer than 69 chapters in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. The book will appeal to residents of, and expatriates from, New York City. It will also appeal to those who like history. Are you interested in history?
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Chapter 64
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for history. In Chapter 64, “That Entertainment!”, the City’s broad entertainment industry at the turn of the twentieth century is recorded. This was the era when many of the entertainment types for which the City is known. The subtitle for the chapter is The Broadway Stage, Pulitzer, Vaudeville, Tin Pin Alley, boxing, baseball, and Coney Island. New York hawks them to the nation.
Any respectable big city needs to generate its entertainment, and the capital of the world is no exception. Broadway developed into the premier showplace in the United States by being first. The Pulitzer Prize is the biggest award in writing. It is ironic that this book won one. Joseph Pulitzer was from New York and was the editor of the New York World.
Many actors got their start in New York during Vaudeville, which started in New York. Tin Pin Alley was an amusement park as well. Sports were big in New York, with many big boxing matches taking place in New York. Boxing was supplanted by baseball around 1900, and New York had the best baseball team, the New York Yankees. Coney Island is one big amusement park and fun for the entire family.
The Boroughs of New York City
New York City is made up of five boroughs, which are like counties. These five boroughs are Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Manhatten is known for its skyscrapers and is often mistakenly called New York. Brooklyn is the first borough on Long Island (furthest West). The Dodgers used to play there and were so named for dodging trolly cars.
Queens is the second borough, located on Long Island. It’s right above Brooklyn. Queens is where the New York Mets currently play. Staten Island is the Island immediately south of Manhatten and is famous, or infamous, for being the trash dumping grounds for the rest of the city. The Bronx, finally, is to the north of Manhattan and is where the New York Yankees currently play.
To give the reader some idea of scale, the population numbers for each of the boroughs are presented. 1,587,436 people are living in Manhattan. 2,300,664 people are living in Brooklyn. Queens has 1,951,598 inhabitants. Staten Island has 398,977 inhabitants and is also known as Richmond County. The Bronx has 1,203,789 people in it. The total for the city was 7,322,564 inhabitants, according to the 1990 United States census.
Conclusion
New York City is in New York State, so the address in the city is New York, New York, which is confusing. Somebody probably needed to document this dark period in the history of New York, and this book definitely does. The book is best used as a reference and will be useful for people from New York, ex-patriots from New York (there are millions), and even for all sorts of people.
