Empire City: The Making And Meaning Of by David Scobey (English) Paperback Book

Description: FREE SHIPPING UK WIDE Empire City by David Scobey When the locals and the rest of the world say New York, they mean Manhattan, a crowded island of commercial districts and residential neighborhoods, skyscrapers and tenements, fabulously rich and abjectly poor cheek by jowl. This title tells the story of the dreams that inspired the changes in the landscape and the problems that eluded solution. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description For generations, New Yorkers have joked about "The Citys" interminable tearing down and building up. The city that the whole world watches seems to be endlessly remaking itself. When the locals and the rest of the world say "New York," they mean Manhattan, a crowded island of commercial districts and residential neighborhoods, skyscrapers and tenements, fabulously rich and abjectly poor cheek by jowl. Of course, it was not always so; New Yorks metamorphosis from compact port to modern metropolis occurred during the mid-nineteenth century. Empire City tells the story of the dreams that inspired the changes in the landscape and the problems that eluded solution. Author David Scobey paints a remarkable panorama of New Yorks uneven development, a city-building process careening between obsessive calculation and speculative excess. Envisioning a new kind of national civilization, "bourgeois urbanists" attempted to make New York the nations pre-eminent city. Ultimately, they created a mosaic of grand improvements, dynamic change, and environmental disorder.Empire City sets the stories of the citys most celebrated landmarks Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the downtown commercial center within the context of this new ideal of landscape design and a politics of planned city building.Perhaps such an ambitious project for guiding growth, overcoming spatial problems, and uplifting the public was bound to fail; still, it grips the imagination. Author note: David M. Scobey is Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan. Notes How did New York City come to represent the best and worst of urban life? Author Biography David M. Scobey is Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan. Table of Contents AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Can a City Be Planned?Bryants QuestionsCity BuildingUrbanismCity and Nation1. Metropolis and NationSaint Olmsted and Frederick the GreatAllegories of the National CityscapeThe American MetropolisThe Class World of Bourgeois UrbanismThe Meanings of EmpireOlmsteds Return2. The Midcentury BoomThe American MuseumOverview of a BoomTerminals and TenementsThe Eternal Building Up and Pulling DownMay Day3. The Rule of Real EstateMyth of OriginsThe Landscape of AccumulationThe Discipline of Land ValuesThe March of ImprovementThe Logic of the GridDreamland4. The Frictions of SpaceUneven DevelopmentArterial SclerosisModernization and Its DiscontentsBoundaries and BoundarilessnessThe New Urbanism5. Imagining the Imperial MetropolisImagined ProspectsThe Bridge Between Capital and CultureEros and CivilizationSecond EmpireDisciplining the StreetsUrbane DomesticityMelodrama6. The Politics of City BuildingThe Emperor of New YorkBest Men, Businessmen, and BoostersCity Building and State BuildingCity BlocsThe Politics of StewardshipThe Modern Prince7. UptownutopiaOverruling the GridInside Out: The Paradoxes of Central ParkAn Urbanism of the PeripheryCheap Trains and Cottage SuburbsThe Uptown Prospect8. The Failure of Bourgeois UrbanismThe Meanings of ReconstmctionThe Legacies of Bourgeois UrbanismThe End of the Boom and the Politics of RetrenchmentThe Battle for the Annexed DistrictThe March of Improvement, 1890Appendix: Statistical TablesNotesIndex Review "The author of this study has written a graceful, tightly argued monograph that will appeal to all who are interested in the relationships among urban history, architecture, and landscape." The Historian "Exhaustively researched, beautifully written, and powerfully argued... Empire City will influence the theories and histories of urban geographers, historians, sociologists, and cultural theorists alike." --George Chauncey, University of Chicago, author of Gay New York "Lucidly written, deeply researched and thought through, Empire City zooms to the front rank of books about nineteenth century New York. Scobey examines the way real estate boosters, visionary reformers, business elites and Tammany politicos reshaped Gothams cityscape, for good and ill. His analytical approach both illuminates a particular era, and provides a powerful general model for examining other times, other places." --Mike Wallace, co-author of Pulitzer-Prize winning Gotham: A History of New York "What made New York? In David Scobeys deft and deeply meditated account, it is not the blind forces of modernization nor the overarching will of an Haussman, but the complex interplay of interests, values and ideas--and above all the grandiose city--and nation-building aspirations of the bourgeois urbanists of the 1860s and 70s. Scobeys New York is both a supremely self-conscious project--a mission civilatrice, as he writes--and the battleground for the conflicting political, economic and social ambitions of an emergent world-city. This is a book for anyone who cares about cities--their future as well as their past." --James Traub, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of City On A Hill: Testing The America Dream At City College "Scobey has written a brilliant, evocative account of New York on the brink of economic and social chaos." --Journal of American History "Scobeys study is a significant contribution to literature in several fields... Perhaps most useful is Scobeys willingness to employ the lens of political economy to dissect the process of urbanization." --History: Review of New Books "It is best to treat [the book] not as a work of urban theory, but as a powerfully written (and very well illustrated) analysis of the specificities of class formation, class conflict and urban culture in the making of modern Manhattan." --Cultural Geographies "Scobey obviously understands buildings, but his larger interests lie in the economic forces, political trends, and cultural values that together determine what buildings and supporting infrastructure will be built where, when and for the benefit of whom...One cannot help, after reading Empire City, feeling a bit of nostalgia for the idealism and broad geographic mindedness of New Yorks nineteenth-century urbanists. Historical Geography Promotional How did New York City come to represent the best and worst of urban life? Long Description For generations, New Yorkers have joked about "The Citys" interminable tearing down and building up. The city that the whole world watches seems to be endlessly remaking itself. When the locals and the rest of the world say "New York," they mean Manhattan, a crowded island of commercial districts and residential neighborhoods, skyscrapers and tenements, fabulously rich and abjectly poor cheek by jowl. Of course, it was not always so; New Yorks metamorphosis from compact port to modern metropolis occurred during the mid-nineteenth century. Empire City tells the story of the dreams that inspired the changes in the landscape and the problems that eluded solution. Author David Scobey paints a remarkable panorama of New Yorks uneven development, a city-building process careening between obsessive calculation and speculative excess. Envisioning a new kind of national civilization, "bourgeois urbanists" attempted to make New York the nations pre-eminent city. Ultimately, they created a mosaic of grand improvements, dynamic change, and environmental disorder. Empire City sets the stories of the citys most celebrated landmarks--Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the downtown commercial center--within the context of this new ideal of landscape design and a politics of planned city building. Perhaps such an ambitious project for guiding growth, overcoming spatial problems, and uplifting the public was bound to fail; still, it grips the imagination. Author note: David M. Scobey is Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan. Review Quote "The author of this study has written a graceful, tightly argued monograph that will appeal to all who are interested in the relationships among urban history, architecture, and landscape." The Historian "Exhaustively researched, beautifully written, and powerfully argued.... Empire City will influence the theories and histories of urban geographers, historians, sociologists, and cultural theorists alike." -George Chauncey, University of Chicago, author of Gay New York "Lucidly written, deeply researched and thought through, Empire City zooms to the front rank of books about nineteenth century New York. Scobey examines the way real estate boosters, visionary reformers, business elites and Tammany politicos reshaped Gothams cityscape, for good and ill. His analytical approach both illuminates a particular era, and provides a powerful general model for examining other times, other places." -Mike Wallace, co-author of Pulitzer-Prize winning Gotham: A History of New York "What made New York? In David Scobeys deft and deeply meditated account, it is not the blind forces of modernization nor the overarching will of an Haussman, but the complex interplay of interests, values and ideas-and above all the grandiose city-and nation-building aspirations of the bourgeois urbanists of the 1860s and 70s. Scobeys New York is both a supremely self-conscious project-a mission civilatrice, as he writes-and the battleground for the conflicting political, economic and social ambitions of an emergent world-city. This is a book for anyone who cares about cities-their future as well as their past." -James Traub, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of City On A Hill: Testing The America Dream At City College "Scobey has written a brilliant, evocative account of New York on the brink of economic and social chaos." -Journal of American History "Scobeys study is a significant contribution to literature in several fields... Perhaps most useful is Scobeys willingness to employ the lens of political economy to dissect the process of urbanization." -History: Review of New Books "It is best to treat [the book] not as a work of urban theory, but as a powerfully written (and very well illustrated) analysis of the specificities of class formation, class conflict and urban culture in the making of modern Manhattan." -Cultural Geographies "Scobey obviously understands buildings, but his larger interests lie in the economic forces, political trends, and cultural values that together determine what buildings and supporting infrastructure will be built where, when and for the benefit of whom....One cannot help, after readingEmpire City, feeling a bit of nostalgia for the idealism and broad geographic mindedness of New Yorks nineteenth-century urbanists. Historical Geography Promotional "Headline" How did New York City come to represent the best and worst of urban life? Details ISBN1592132359 Short Title EMPIRE CITY Language English ISBN-10 1592132359 ISBN-13 9781592132355 Media Book Format Paperback Illustrations Yes Year 2003 Imprint Temple University Press,U.S. Place of Publication Philadelphia PA Country of Publication United States Edited by Brier, Stephen DOI 10.1604/9781592132355 UK Release Date 2003-09-30 AU Release Date 2003-09-30 NZ Release Date 2003-09-30 US Release Date 2003-09-30 Subtitle The Making And Meaning Of Author David Scobey Pages 352 Publisher Temple University Press,U.S. Series Critical Perspectives On The P Publication Date 2003-09-30 Alternative 9781566399500 DEWEY 974.71 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! 30 DAY RETURN POLICY No questions asked, 30 day returns! 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