Manhattan Phoenix, Daniel S. Levy
Manhattan Phoenix, Daniel S. Levy
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Manhattan Phoenix
The Great Fire of 1835 and the Emergence of Modern New York

Author: Daniel S. Levy

Narrator: Mike Lenz

Unabridged: 18 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2022


Synopsis

In 1835, a merchant named Gabriel Disosway marveled at a great fire enveloping New York, commenting on how it "spread more and more vividly from the fiery arena, rendering every object, far and wide, minutely discernible—the lower bay and its Islands, with the shores of Long Island and New Jersey." The fire Disosway witnessed devastated a large swath of lower Manhattan, clearing roughly the same number of acres as the World Trade Center bombing.

Manhattan Phoenix explores the emergence of modern New York after it emerged from the devastating the fire of 1835—a catastrophe that revealed how truly unprepared and haphazardly organized it was—to become a world-class city merely a quarter of a century later. The one led to other. New York effectively had to start over. Daniel Levy's book charts Manhattan's almost miraculous growth while interweaving the lives of various New Yorkers who took part in the city's transformation. Some are well known, such as the land baron John Jacob Astor and Mayor Fernando Wood. Others less so, as with the African American oysterman Thomas Downing and the Bowery Theatre impresario Thomas Hamblin.

Manhattan Phoenix reveals a city first in flames and then in flux but resolute in its determination to emerge as one of the world's greatest metropolises.

About Daniel S. Levy

Daniel S. Levy writes for Life, Time, and Time-Life Books-which are part of Meredith Special Interest Media-as well as for National Geographic Books. Prior to that he was a senior reporter at Time magazine, where he covered architecture and classical music, and a reporter at People magazine, where he wrote about social issues and crime. Levy is the author of Two-Gun Cohen, a biography of Morris Cohen, an English adventurer who became a general in the Chinese army.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fran on May 18, 2023

Author Daniel S. Levy really took on too much in this book, though it's not entirely his fault. His premise -- that the aftereffects of the Great Fire of December 1835 transformed New York City into the most important metropolitan area in the US -- demanded that he look at the ensuing changes in eve......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on March 27, 2022

I received this book from Netgalley as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Although the book was extensively researched and informative, I found the subject matter to be a little dry and at times found myself wandering off into other thoughts which is why I can only give this book 3 stars. I th......more

Goodreads review by Linda on July 20, 2022

Overall, I liked the book, and it was interesting. It essentially covers New York City in the 1800s, but to a certain extent it includes history of New York from well before that. It was not a great book for several reasons. First, I don't think it really proved its supposed thesis that the fire of......more

Goodreads review by Elmwoodblues on August 26, 2022

As much a history of the Croton Aqueduct and the growth of Manhattan as it is a history of a specific event, the fire of 1835 is just a place-holder in the documentation of getting water, and the wisdom of public health, to NYC. Buildings burned, and burned again; diseases flared up and were tamped......more

Goodreads review by Felicia Roff Tunnah on May 03, 2024

Well written history of Manhattan and the role fire played in the first half of the nineteenth century.......more