A comprehensive history of the families who risked fortunes and occasionally lost them while working their designs on N.Y.C.'s skyline—by the author of The Phony War (1982) and The Day America Crashed (1979). From the Astors in the late 19th century to the Trumps of yesterday, Manhattan real estate has been a quintessential family business. The reasons become clear as Shachtman traces the process by which generations of Rhinelanders, Astors, and Goelets cultivated their modest, pre-elevator, lower-Manhattan rental properties while gradually transforming them into grand hotels, palatial mansions, and the base of America's most sophisticated social elite. The wave of Russian-Jewish immigrants who followed brought their own ideas of family intact from their homeland; to ensure the survival of their own they banded together to purchase apartment buildings in their ghettos on the Lower East Side, experiment with larger projects in the outer boroughs, and eventually—sometimes a generation or so later—tackle the well- entrenched establishment on the great island itself. Then as now, the business of buying low, building tall, and selling high was a cutthroat one in which only blood relatives could truly be trusted. Developers without heirs were likely to see their influence on the skyline die quickly, while even families virtually destroyed by New York's constant economic fluctuations were able to recover in subsequent, possibly wiser, generations. The downside of rampant overdevelopment is given short shrift in this mild-mannered account, however. Despite occasional eccentricities (old Astor's wet nurse, Trump's manipulation of the media), Shachtman evokes a hard-working, civic-minded, rather stodgy group, whose generally humble demeanor contrasts sharply with the concrete evidence of their ambitions. Overly respectful, perhaps, but captivating nevertheless.
Pub Date: Aug. 21, 1991
ISBN: 0-316-78213-0
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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