Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Bu..., Jonathan Mahler
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Bu..., Jonathan Mahler
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning
1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City

Author: Jonathan Mahler

Narrator: Kyle Tait

Unabridged: 11 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/30/2021

Synopsis

By early 1977, the metropolis was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed "Son of Sam." And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in New York's history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city's mayoralty.

Buried beneath these parallel conflicts—one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of the city—was the subtext of race. The brash and confident Jackson took every black myth and threw it back in white America's face. Meanwhile, Koch and Cuomo ran bitterly negative campaigns that played upon urbanites' fears of soaring crime and falling municipal budgets.

These braided stories tell the history of a year that saw the opening of Studio 54, the evolution of punk rock, and the dawning of modern SoHo. As the pragmatist Koch defeated the visionary Cuomo and as Reggie Jackson finally rescued a team racked with dissension, 1977 became a year of survival but also of hope.

About Jonathan Mahler

Jonathan Mahler, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning and The Challenge: How a Maverick Navy Officer and a Young Law Professor Risked Their Careers to Defend the Constitution-and Won.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bob on June 09, 2018

Bought this book as research for my current work in progress which is set in the summer of 1977. I remember that summer, although I spent a good portion of it in Beast Barracks in my first year at West Point. I do remember going to see Star Wars when it came out. So much happened, which is why I'm us......more

Goodreads review by KOMET on April 22, 2019

I was in my late pre-teens and early adolescence in the period described in this book. But I do remember hearing, as a 10-year old, about New York being on the verge of bankruptcy and asking Uncle Sam for a bailout. I remember, too, the 1976 World Series in which the Reds swept the Yankees. The Yank......more

Goodreads review by Laura on March 16, 2019

Ed Koch - Mario Cuomo - Martin - Reggie - Steinbrenner - Rupert Murdoch - Son of Sam - disco - punk - ConEd - the Blackout - Bushwick - the Concorde ... it’s astounding the number of things that happened in NYC in 1977 that laid the foundation for years to come. Mahler does a commendable job of weav......more

Goodreads review by Emma on February 08, 2014

The promised "kaleidoscopic" view of New York City that Mahler attempts, is both a virtue and a fault. His two main threads are the 1977 Yankees baseball season, and the 1977 Democratic mayoral primary. The latter is much, much stronger than the former, in my opinion. This might not be true in the a......more

Goodreads review by Al on December 14, 2023

There is really only one problem with this book and that since it has come out, seemingly everyone has wrote about it. There was an ESPN minj series dramatization of the book which took some shots from critics but was quite good with John Turturro, Daniel Sanjata and Oliver Platt. But VH1 had NY77:......more

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