5 comments about Old Queens, N.Y., in Early Photographs: 261 Prints (Dover Books on New York City).

1. Queens usually takes third place to Manhattan and Brooklyn on NYC bookshelfs but this terrific photo collection will go a long way to remedy that. There's an enlightening introduction about the borough and wonderful photos/captions for 27 neighborhoods. My personal favorite is on pp.122-123, a jaw-dropping 1906 view of the strange junction of Jamaica Ave., Myrtle Ave. and Lefferts Blvd. in Richmond Hill. Today, this unique street pattern remains but, alas, the Triangle Hotel, later the Triangle Hofbrau, where the likes of Babe Ruth and Mae West imbibed, recently closed down. I've shown this book to a couple of former Queens people and they were amazed. Don't miss it if you're from Queens or have even a passing interest in urban history. Hopefully, the publisher is correcting a page-order problem in the beginning of the edition I purchased at a museum last summer, but don't let that hold you back. This is a real gem.



2. For this former resident (Corona and Laurelton), Old Queens presented an engrossing, illuminating, and refreshing visual window on the area of New York that has received too little historical attention. Arranged by community, the book provides concise, individual historical narratives to go with a set of photographs of people and places and old maps that can only be called amazing. Indeed, the treasures of this book, for my taste, are the many photos from the era before the construction of the subway lines that transformed rural Queens into megalopolis. Many of the area photos (structures from the 1939 World's Fair, for example) will no doubt be familiar to many. What surprises, however, are photos such as the two page spread of an untamed, deserted pre-World's Fair Flushing Meadow, a lush meadow creased by the winding Flushing River, itself crossed by the vanished Strong's Causeway that carried Corona Avenue traffic across the soggy marsh to Lawrence Street in Flushing. Equally compelling are photos of the muddy looking thoroughly rural roads of Queens Boulevard and Merrick Road (in Springfield) from the early 20th century complete with isolated farm buildings. Perhaps the most symbolic photo, however, is the panoramic photo showing a spanking new IRT Flushing Line elevated tracks slanting across a nearly-vacant 1915 Sunnyside landscape that looks more like Ohio than New York City. This book helps the reader see Queens as it existed before the housing explosion. It also makes one wonder what might have been. In effect, Old Queens shows what was lost to all-too-rapid, unplanned suburbanization left entirely in the greedy hands of the marketplace. Lack of urban planning and nonexistent historic preservation is the unspoken theme that resonates often in this book. Who wouldn't want to live in one of those handsome, tree-shaded, Victorian homes on the shady, Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill, Jamaica, or Elmhurst? The question is academic, since none of these homes survived the Queens building boom of the early 20th century. Suppose Robert Moses had actually carried through plans to turn the Corona Dump/Flushing Meadow into an honest-to-goodness park with kinds of recreational facilities he lavished on his Long Island state parks? Suppose the city fathers (and local politicians) had taken a more custodial role and protected Jamaica Bay and it surrounding marshlands from pollution for descendants of the gentlemen angler shown pulling his crabpot out of a quiet channel in Meadowmere? While this reader would have liked to view a few photos from vanished communities, such as Ramblersville (Ozone Park), Black Stump (Fresh Meadows), or White Pot (Forest Hills), he believes that Seyfried and Asadorian have assembled a fascinating book that appears destined for the coffee table hall of fame, that is, if rabid readers don't tear it to shreds, first.



3. I grew up in Hollis, Queens during the '50s & and '60s and thought that I saw a lot of changes in the neighborhood. But this book is a real eye-opener showing how the area changed from farmlands in the 19th century (including developer's ads) to a fully built up residential community by the 1940's. The book is a must read for anyone who has lived in Queens



4. I guess we all have our own opinion of what we'd like to see in a collection of old photos and the history of a particular place. In the case of this book, there are lots of old photos and interesting memorabilia, like early maps and ads for housing developments, as well as a brief synopsis of each section of the borough through the photos' descriptions. The quality of the photo reproductions is quite good, overall, and the writing is fine. I only wish it was larger and had more from the area I grew up in but, never-the-less, still a worthwhile addition to anyone's bookcase or coffee table.



5. Book arrived on time in excellent condition. 100% satisfied with everything and will buy a couple more books as Christmas gifts.

5 comments about The Park and the People: A History of Central Park.

1. "The Park and the People" is an exquisite work of scholarship. I've read much about the park but nothing approaches the depth of knowledge and insight contained in this extraordinary book. It's provocative, exciting, extremely well written, and downright readable. I learned something new on every page and simply could not put it down.



2. There are several good books about Central Park, but this book, along with Sara Cedar Miller's "Central Park, An American Masterpiece" are among the very best.
   
   "The Park and the People: A History of Central Park" is an exhaustive study, without being exhausting. Generously peppered with wonderful illustrations, the book will entice people who had never visited the 800+ acre park to see it. And it will intrigue those people who use the park every day, to look at it with a more insightful eye. This beautiful park has now gotten a beautiful narrative to complement and compliment it. And take Amazon's advice and purchase Miller's book along with this one!
   
   Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points



3. No park has been so exhaustively researched, photographed and documented as this 843 acre oasis. So in saying this book stands out, I'm really saying something. This history of this park is just fascinating and the photos are just wonderful, Mr. Rosenzweig does fine research and it shows, his love for the park is evident in his writing and it makes the book all the more enjoyable. Central Park is the heart of the city, and to understand New York you really need to understand the history of the park. A New York without a Central Park is just unimaginable. I highly recommend this book.



4. This is not just a wonderful study of the park itself but a wonderful route into the social world of 19th century new york....one of the points of the book is that the park's boundaries were never natural, however naturalistic the winning design, but were, in the broadest sense, political. What remains today in the park was always fought over and contested.



5. Like Captain Renault in Casablanca who is "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!", Rosenzweig and Blackmar are stunned time and again in prose over 500 plus pages to find that individuals and interest groups often do not pursue goals out of altruism -- although there is sometimes a public benefit to the outcomes sought -- but rather out of what they see as their self-interest. In the authors view, that pursuit of self-interest is OK for some, but not OK for others, such as the individuals who first conceived of the park, who should -- they appear to believe -- be held accountable to a higher standard of broad societal good. It's like the authors don't get that one of the things democracy is all about is precisely the clash of competing interests. And out of that clash come imperfect resolutions, as Central Park was and is. But the larger point is that, while imperfect, nearly everybody can find something in the park for themselves while over the last 25 years all have benefitted as the park has grown steadily more hospitable and well-maintained.
   
   I appreciated that The Park and the People provided me with a lot of new and interesting facts about the history of the park, and the authors are particularly good in restoring Calvert Vaux to his rightful place as a full partner of Olmsted in the Greensward Plan. And they make a good point that the emphasis on Central Park can result in other less iconic parks in boroughs receiving fewer funds and less attention. Still, any book that is harsher on the Central Park Conservancy -- because it is a private initiative and therefore (R&B say) lessens public control of public space -- than on Boss Tweed -- whose rise is mainly touted as an example of broadened democratization in New York City -- has, in my view, a serious problem of perspective.

5 comments about Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the Massacre.

1. Although this was a good book in itself, it covered too much of the French and Indian War to just have a title of Fort William Henry and the "Massacre". The book was interesting up to the point of the siege and massacre then it became very vague. It lacked details to the point of disappointment. It did not say what specific Indian tribes did most of the massacre, nor did it have a thorough account of actually what was happening! It told about some injured being killed in the fort , then it jumped to militia killed on the road to Ft Edward, then to the English officers dining with the French officers and chasing away Indians from their personal effects. In addition the author downplayed the massacre! Every time the word was used it was in quotation marks,making it seem the massacre was overplayed. But if 10 people are massacred instead of 200 does that make a difference? The book did inform the reader about the Canadien slave trade which was going on between them and some tribes, which other books clearly never bring up. Many English suffered because of it. It also made it clear that because of the French's terms at Ft. William Henry, many Indians then refused to help the French in the future. Sealing their fate in the French and Indian War.



2. The title of this perceptive book tells the gist of Professor Steele's investigation into the seige and subsequent murder or kidnapping of prisoners after the British garrison surrendered to Montcalm in 1757. In essence, the English prisoners were betrayed by the French by letting their Indian allies seek scalps, prisoners and plunder after being given parole to march to a British force on the Hudson. On a larger scale, the French betrayed the Indians by not allowing them to take what Indians assumed were rightfully theirs as a part of 18th century warfare: prisoners to replace tribal members killed in combat, plunder of European materials, and scalps. Steele asserts that the losses suffered by the British garrison were smaller than previously claimed (including a number of men who were forced to travel home with Indians from the Great Lakes)and that the incident was not the bloodbath of popular legend. The men taken to the Lakes kept turning up for years afterward. Many of the scalps taken were from the corpses in the fort's cemetery-the Indians who took these scalps therefore brought smallpox back home with them and might have inadvertently destroyed whole tribes. Steele tries to count the men killed during the "massacre" and I think he is successful in his enumeration. He does not overlook the wounded who were murdered in their beds, the man boiled and eaten by his captors, and the soldiers knocked out of line and killed because they resisted being plundered. I agree that Montcalm was not complicit in directing the massacre, but set up the conditions that caused it to happen.

   The Massacre lives on in popular imagination, but so does the Boston Massacre, certainly one of the most non-massacres in American history.

   On a personal note, my 7th generation great-grandfather Bernardus Bratt commanded the New York troops at Fort William Henry in the summer of 1756 and came out as a company commander in Sir William Johnson's regiment after the 1757 massacre.

   Well-written and well-documented modern accounts of the French and Indian War are few and far between. Steele's book should remain the final word for some time to come.




3. Despite the Liberal revisionist description of this book I found it to be an honest scholarly investigation into this event in history which has become one of the darker legends of colonial American history. Clearly not the work of some Amerindian apologist bent on denying or trivializing what happened, this book tries to provide the reader with an honest and unbiased source of what happened. Provides a good source of background on the war and the treatment of captives, including the French Colonial slave trade of American captives. The author makes a sincere effort to determine what actually happened.
   
   A good book for those interested in this period.



4. Accounts of the siege and fall of Fort William Henry (3-9 August 1757) vary dramatically depending on the source (or movie), but all agree English/Colonial forces were attacked a day after their surrender to Montcalm with the `honors of war.' The causes, responsibility, and number of victims have been widely disputed ever since.
   
   This work convincingly reconstructs the actual event from sources drawn from colonial to modern times (all presented). It describes the frontier (from Kalm's 1749 travels), the struggle for dominion, the combatants, and the victims' fate (with a tabulation of killed and missing). It is a lucid, balanced account that sets the record straight and raises larger questions.
   
   Each party was betrayed: English/Colonials by the attack, each other, and the absence of Iroquois allies; the French by unreliable native allies (especially those from the pays d'en haut) and Canadians; Canadians by French neophytes in North American warfare; and the perpetrators (Indians allies of the French) by European terms that foreclosed their expectations. It was an event that exposed radically disjointed cultures.
   
   One of the Indian perpetrators best explained himself to Sulpician Abbé François Picquet in Montréal en route west after refusing Governor Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnail's attempts to redeem his captive:
   
   "I make war for plunder, scalps, and prisoners. You are satisfied with a fort, and you let your enemy and mine live. I do not want to keep such bad meat for tomorrow. When I kill it, it can no longer attack me." The native world had no conception of the `honors of war' or chivalry (save silent days of torture of a captive before inevitable death).
   
   A few minor items missing in the text/footnotes:
   -The Ohio Land Company (formed by George Washington's elder brother Lawrence, Lt-Gov Dinwidde, and others, employing George Washington as a surveyor) which stood to directly profit from the acquisition of western Pennsylvania - claimed by France;
   -The `assassination' of Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville and ten other Frenchmen after they surrendered to George Washington by Tanaghrisson and his Mingo tribesmen 28 May 1754 at Jumonville's Glen PA (a formative event for war, similarly disputed in subsequent accounts);
   -Louis Coulon de Villiers's (Jumonville's elder brother) victory at Fort Necessity 3 July 1754 is mentioned, but without any acknowledgment of Villiers's award of `honors of war' to George Washington and Washington's immediate renunciation of them on regaining safety in Virginia (he returned with Braddock the following year and narrowly escaped death at Monongahela 9 July 1755);
   -The Battle of Carillon 8 July 1758, Montcalm's last victory, in which (deserted by most native allies) his force of 4,200 defeated Maj-General James Abercromby's 17,600 man (including 400 Mohawks) attack.
   
   Those points aside (they have more to do with context rather than content), this is an excellent work that is highly recommended.



5. Much of this book concerns the French and Indian War in general and not just the "massacre." In fact, I don't see why the title claims it is specifically about "Fort William Henry and the Massacre."
   
   This is an okay book, but I have read better ones. I wouldn't feel less informed, really, if I had never read it. Decent writing but somewhat dry. Not a page turner, but just okay to read. Disappointing in that it didn't really cover the subject well (in my opinion).

5 comments about Old New York in Early Photographs.

1. If one desires a book of page-size, sterile photos of substantial structures (with minimal captions) this volume will certainly fill the bill. If, however, one prefers historical snapshots of people amidst the buildings or scenes of shacks or tenements, be forewarned that these are few and far between. Also, in number, the later-in-time pictures tend to predominate. Thus, if the viewer is looking to gaze a la Gangs of New York, some of the wordier texts provide much more appropriate photographic fodder.



2. The print quality of the photos in OLD NEW YORK IN EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS is quite good, better than most. And the quantity of the photographs is equally impressive. And that's about it for the positives.

   Arranged by neighborhood, the photos have little else to do with each other. There is no unifying theme holding the photos together. Not that every collection ought to have a theme as powerful as Jacob Riis' HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES, but these photos seem so haphazardly arranged. The scanty text doesn't even attempt to explain how the individual vignettes came about, or how it relates to the particiular time in New York's history that the photo was taken. And, of course, Manhattan is the only borough represented here. I suppose the citizens of the other four boroughs had yet to climb down from their trees and build fires, never mind operate cameras.

   Rocco Dormarunno from ooog-ooog Brooklyn




3. This was a good Old whatever book. I had been reading Edith Wharton and really wanted to see the old mansions of the wealthy New Yorkers. I did not see much of this in the book. But I enjoyed the pictures and the text.



4. Pictorial books like these are glorious time machines and invaluable primary resources. We are so fortunate that these pictures exist. The prints are crystal clear and detailed in that way only black and white photography can be. There is no greater joy that going down to Manhattan and finding the places photographed and seeing if anything has survived.



5. I had this book years ago, it got lost along the way, and I was so happy to see this copy offered on Amazon! It is the very best old-New-York photo book available! Thrilled to receive it! Recommended!!!

No comments about The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools.

No comments about The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (Suny Series in Oral and Public History).

3 comments about New York City: A Short History.

1. Having just moved to NYC I bought this dog expecting to get a quick brush up on the fascinating story of America's Greatest City. Instead I was burdened with endless trivia about who was mayor or who ran Tammany Hall at any given moment in New York's history.

   Obviously this angle is part of the big picture of The City, but it comes off the page very flat and, sadly, uninteresting. There is scant attention paid to the million and one other details about New York life that one really wants to hear about: art, culture, social life, transportation, etc.

   The writing is intelligent enough. The author is clearly a smart person with a lot of interest in his subject. It's just that enduring this book is more like watching someone's vacation slides and less like the inspiring, terse and revealing story you hope you'd get when you bought the thing.




2. A Short History is exactly that. Succinct and to the point, structured around the political evolution of the city, using New York's succession of mayors as its main vehicle.

   Editing: Four Stars. Simple structure and well managed.

   Copy Editing: Four Stars. One or two things slipped by. James, Duke of York, after whom the city is named, is called, oddly, Duke James instead of the Duke of York, or more properly, York. Otherwise clean copy.




3. If you are looking for a thorough and well-organized history of New York City this book will suit your needs. Sure, it may not be as detailed as "Gotham" but most of us will not want that level of depth. This book is wisely broken into sections that mirror the terms of the various governors and mayors of the Big Apple-and, really, why wouldn't that be the best way to present this story. The reading is quick and clear and you'll know everything the average person would want to know about NYC.

5 comments about One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001.

1. Wonderful experience. Seller worked out all the details with me and I was so pleased with the purchase. Would definitely refer others to him and also buy from him again. Thanks so much.



2. The point comes across, but I think there is plenty of other work that should have been included.



3. Ordered same book from three different vendors - one came within a week, one in two weeks, the last in four weeks. All arrived in good shape.



4. The events of 9-11 are still unfolding 8 years later. Scientists from BYU and the University of Copenhagen have recently completed a well-researched and comprehensive analysis of nano-thermite found within numerous samples taken on and shortly after 9-11. NIST only recently completed their investigation of Building 7, and concluded that fire, alone, caused this 47-story building to freefall (in the exact same manner as an engineered implosion) at 5:20 pm on 9-11. NIST refuses to analyze samples for explosive materials (even after the recent confirmation of presence at the scene of this horrific crime). This book, like the media, does not include these uncomfortable facts...but these facts must be known by every caring citizen of this Nation. Our future depends upon the public taking the time to educate themselves.



5. This book is a piece of recent history,and the numerous photographs from that day,together with the minute by minute timeline ,give a good idea of the day as it unfolded. Looking at the large photographs,some double-page,of the twin towers as they were struck,and later as the towers fall,it still feels difficult to believe that this actually did happen.
   A powerful image is of a group of people gazing upwards, the look of horror on their faces as they witness one of the towers fall says as much as any picture, of the magnitude of the event. Well researched and with eyewitness accounts as well as chapters dealing with the aftermath,the clearing up of the destruction, and how some of those left behind are coping,make this a balanced book.It does not only focus on the drama.

5 comments about Gotham : A History of New York City to 1898.

1. It took me quite a while to read this book - several years, in fact. I was determined to read it through to the end, primarily because it was co-written by my second cousin. I am proud of my association with this Pulitzer Prize winning historian, and I am proud to have read the length of this book, a panoramic overview of the history of New York City from its earliest times up until the 20th century, and the creation of the metropolis out of what were formerly independent communities.
   
   I am at a loss of what to say about this book, because it says it all. The authors present a complete, and not overly detailed, account of New York's growth and development. The emphasis is on power and politics, as in most histories, but there are side trails taken into various cultural situations. The diversity and ever-evolving nature of the place, as well as its sometime brutality, are displayed well. The knowledge imparted here is so full as to make it impossible to summarize, and the work itself is in the nature of a summing up of the work of other historians. There were numerous fascinating anecdotes and quick sketches of complicated situations, some of which will stay with me. For example, I recall reading with surprise about the free Black folks of NYC, who were here long before the Emancipation Proclamation, rubbing shoulders with their white neighbors. There is a lot about old, old New York and some of its fascinating characters and leaders, such as Dutch populist Jacob Leisler, someone who deserves to be better remembered. And it is not easy to forget the unsung tragedy of the draft riots that occurred during the Civil War, once one has read about it. Political corruption, particularly under Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall organization, and the fight against it is discussed at some length. Also interesting to learn about are the numerous devices that make modern life possible which were invented in NYC, such as the elevator and the steam engine, the creation of New York's excellent public water system, and some of the entertaining and partying that went on in the 1800s.
   
   The city's growth from being a city with about the same population and influence as Boston and Philadelphia in the late 1700s into America's leading metropolis and business center is the real main theme of this book, and of course, New York's growth went hand in hand with America's. There is also much here about the waves of immigrants, from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the Jewish shtetls of Eastern Europe, and about the ongoing conflicts between the upper crust and the working class, and between the proper and the licentious. Gotham is pretty well illustrated too, with numerous drawings and (mostly from the New York Historical Society) that add a great deal to the overall effect.
   
   This will sit on my shelf, a Christmas gift from my father (I got him the exact same thing that year), and I will dip into it from time to time when I feel the need to understand New York City a little better, and I will reflect on this amazing achievement of my kinsman and his fellow historian.



2. Yes it's long. But it's very good and never flags. Amazingly, I can't think of single section that could or should have been cut. Despite its length, it's a tight, well edited book.
   
   It's more like a companion to life, at least for a few months. But you can cheat on Gotham with other books in between! It really is an outstanding history of NYC and, because it's so good and so long, you don't really ever have that fear of finishing any time soon!
   
   My only complaint is that the paper is so big and paper so thin that the book doesn't physically hold up well. It's hard to hold. I ripped mine into three sections to make it more manageable. But perhaps that's not everybody's idea of how to treat a book.



3. Burrows and Wallace provide the definitive account on the history of New York City up until the merge of the boroughs into present day Manhattan. Tracing history from its Dutch beginnings, to the English take over, as a seat of revolutionary power and finally finding its place as the financial capital of the United States and eventually the world. The book is detailed and focuses not only on the urban development and political development, but social and demographic changes as well. It is primarily a story of Manhattan but does spend a considerable amount of time on Brooklyn. The Bronx, Long Island and Staten Island are covered sparingly. The political development of New York from the ward bosses to centralized modern government to the corruption of Tammany Hall followed by the successive progressive movement is done very well and the authors are mindful of the competing Dutch and British heritage that give New York a unique flavor. For those who wish to have a complete overview of how modern New York came to be this is the place to start. Do not be deterred by its length for as the other reviews indicate it is not a detriment. It is through, well written and provides top notch analysis into historical developments relating to all areas of New York.



4. This is an astonishing book: 1200 pages long, deep and rich in detail, covering the history of New York City from the arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century to the consolidation of the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Kings counties) in 1898. The writing is magnificent, and despite the range and depth and abundant detail, the material is unfailingly engaging and just plain fun.



5. Its so HEAVY! They used glossy high quality paper stock which seriously added a few pounds to the thing. If it was on newsprint quality it would have been much lighter and I could carry it with me to read on trips (because its not something you read in a few days). I wish I had bought it for Kindle or iPad, especially since that would make jumping to footnotes easier.
   
   Anyway, thats my only complaint. Otherwise its brilliant and makes my experience living in NYC so much more enjoyable to know the history behind all the names and places I saw every day. Written in a very accessible style too.

5 comments about Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

1. A very inventive concept of New York's "culture of congestion" and how people are affected by the architecture they create. It is heavily researched and exhaustive, and after pretty much the third page I agreed with his concept of NY being "totally fabricated by man". What could of been a fascinating article becomes a spastic, heavy-handed read with a sledgehammer effect to your brain. (However,for those of us reading it for school, there are plenty of pictures that fill up the almost devastatingly vast 300+pages quickly.) It will scramble your brain with its thousands of nearly bumper-stickerish statements ("It hides life." "The Mountain MUST become architecture.") written with pretentious glee. However, I believe an independent scientific study has concluded that when pretending to read this book on the train people around you will assume your IQ is 40% higher than truth.



2. through the exhaustive historiography of the phases of congestion coney island brought to manhattan, koolhaas provides a rather cynical view of the Grid as being an ulimatley neutral zoning system of constraining ideas that represent the continual decline of a phantastically realistic civilization, represented as mutated symbols of architecture in the "void" of repeated "pregnancies."
   
   it's really well written. funny. uses, like above, a somewhat inefficient vocabulary but remains in the same vein throughout. it is also a graphic design hubris consuming every page, even the left-justified text, showing off koolhaas's interpretation of the importance to combine scholarship and marketing.
   
   buy it. it's a very good book.



3. While "Delirious" has its fair share of archispeak, Mr. Koolhaas pulls off an intelligent, fun and thought-provoking take on the early 20th century building culture of New York.
   
   One of the quirkier (and frankly, awesome/bravadoish) aspects of "Delirious" is Mr. Koolhaas's analysis of Coney Island: an "incubator for Manhattan's incipient themes." As a reader, one initially questions the inclusion of such a trashy place in such a lofty manifesto. However, as the chapter progresses, you start to see Mr. Koolhaas's iconoclastic brilliance. He pays an amazing homage to "the laboratory" that was Coney Island, illuminating the vital role it played in the building philosophies that would emerge later in Manhattan.
   
   Scattered throughout "Delirious," also, are compelling supporting images that Mr. Koolhaas clearly spent a lot of time digging up. In fact, flipping through the book for the images alone makes for a near-equivalent, and fun, learning experience.
   
   However, unlike his tasteful use of images, Mr. Koolhaaas's flamboyant use of scholarly English makes his writing difficult to digest at times:
   
   "It is probably inevitable that a doctrine based on the continual simulation of pragmatism, on a self-imposed amnesia that allows the continuous reenactment of the same subconscious themes in ever new reincarnations and on inarticulateness systematically cultivated in order to operate more effectively..."
   
   Given Mr. Koolhaas's journalism background (and assumed mastery of writing), I suspect he made the conscious decision to remain somewhat inaccessible to preserve his "lofty" image. While such a decision may be understandable, his brilliance as a writer often gets overshadowed by the sheer irritation of trying to understand him.
   
   Ultimately, "Delirious" proves itself to be a very intelligent synopsis---just as delirious and congested the themes Mr. Koolhaas puts forth. For the most part, it's a pleasure to read, and it also reflects the exhaustive research on Mr. Koolhaas's end. Much like Mr. Koolhaas's buildings, "Delirious" is on the cusp of being as grand as it intends to be.



4. The author presents in concise fashion his own version of New York City's urban development history.
   
   One may or may not be convinced by his thesis that there is a specific New York City psyche that is reflected over time in a wide variety of constructions.
   
   But one can only be enthralled by his intimate knowledge of the City and of projects ranging from Coney Island to the Empire State Building to the 1964 World Fair.
   
   The surprising and at times bizarre illustrations add to the incredibly rich text. They include for instance a vintage photograph of famous architects actually costumed as their own creations: the Fuller Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Squibb Building, the Chrysler Building, etc.
   
   Written over 30 years ago and thus also a reflection of the 1970's, this work is definitely a classic well worth reading today for anyone interested in New York or in cities in general.



5. I read this book on the train, to and from work. I'm an architect in NYC, so it seemed like a perfect place to read this book. There are some interesting case studies that lead to an interesting comparison of Le Corbusier and Salvidor Dali with their respect to architecture. Oddly enough, I end up liking Dali as an architect more than Le Corbusier.