The Gods of New York, Jonathan Mahler
The Gods of New York, Jonathan Mahler
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The Gods of New York
Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990

Author: Jonathan Mahler

Narrator: Robert Petkoff

Unabridged: 16 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/12/2025

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A sweeping chronicle of four tumultuous years in 1980s New York that changed the city forever—and anticipated the forces that would soon divide the nation—from the bestselling author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

“A rip-roaring, sweeping, essential work of history . . . a deeply reported and brilliantly observed account of how the modern city was born and why all of us continue to live with the results.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Economist, The New Yorker, Town & Country

New York entered 1986 as a city reborn. Record profits on Wall Street sent waves of money splashing across Manhattan, bringing a battered city roaring back to life.

But it also entered 1986 as a city whose foundation was beginning to crack. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets, addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illnesses. Nearly one-third of the city’s Black and Hispanic residents were living below the federal poverty line. Long-simmering racial tensions threatened to boil over.

The events of the next four years would split the city open. Howard Beach. Black Monday. Tawana Brawley. The crack epidemic. The birth of ACT UP. The Central Park jogger. The release of Do the Right Thing. And a cast of outsized characters—Ed Koch, Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Rudy Giuliani, Larry Kramer—would compete to shape the city’s future while building their own mythologies.

The Gods of New York is a kaleidoscopic and deeply immersive portrait of a city whose identity was suddenly up for grabs: Could it be both the great working-class city that lifted up immigrants from around the world and the money-soaked capital of global finance? Could it retain a civic culture—a common idea of what it meant to be a New Yorker—when the rich were building a city of their own and vast swaths of its citizens were losing faith in the systems meant to protect them? New York City was one thing at the dawn of 1986; it would be something very different as 1989 came to a close. This is the story of how that happened.

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.

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Quotes

“A rip-roaring, sweeping, essential work of history, The Gods of New York offers a deeply reported and brilliantly observed account of how the modern city was born and why all of us continue to live with the results, for better and for worse.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life

“This rollicking chronicle of New York City at the end of the 1980s, by a staff writer for The New York Times magazine, tells a story of near death and glamorous rebirth. Mahler captures a metropolis emerging from economic crisis to become the capital of global finance, while navigating AIDS, crack, homelessness, racial unrest and the power plays of larger-than-life characters like Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.”—The New York Times

“Mahler expertly captures the relentlessness and simultaneity of incident that characterize life in New York City. History, in his telling, becomes a mosaic of interlocking tragedies . . . the wholesale reanimation, in compulsively readable prose, of a pivotal chunk of history that turns out to have a lot to say to readers today.”—The Washington Post

“A riot of stories from a period beset by racial tensions, the crack epidemic, soaring crime, sensational cases and an economic boom overwhelmingly boosting the rich . . . such an enthralling read. The city Mahler shows is gone, but its stories remain.”—The Guardian

“Expansive yet fast-paced . . . an astute, propulsive history of the ‘entrenched’ inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Skillfully constructed and vividly written.”—The Economist

“A narrative as sprawling and multifaceted as the city itself.”—The New Yorker

“A captivating new book from Jonathan Mahler (Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning) that tracks the city and its triumphs, tribulations, and scandals in the four formative years between 1986 and 1990. It’s a story of newly minted Masters of the Universe and the AIDS epidemic, of nightlife and lowlifes . . . in short, a real-life Bonfire of the Vanities.”—Town & Country

“A deeply enviable book.”—John Ganz, author of When the Clock Broke

“Expansive yet fast-paced . . . an astute, propulsive history of the ‘entrenched’ inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A propulsive, gorgeously reported account of the forces that reshaped New York City in the late 1980s, The Gods of New York is brilliant historical non-fiction that doubles as a warning about the future.”—Emily Nussbaum, author of Cue the Sun

“The Gods of New York may be the best nonfiction book ever written about the city.”—Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Our Country Friends

“This is a story about the Big Apple, about the tree that birthed this forbidden fruit, and about the worms hiding inside.”—Wright Thompson, bestselling author of The Barn

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