The New Metropolis : New York City, 1840-1857

In one generation, New York was transformed into one of the great cities of the modern world. The causes and results of this change are emphasized by Edward K. Spann in The New Metropolis. This book is a brilliant evocation of the years when a seaport town was lost and a great metropolis gained. It is the happy story of American ingenuity, achievement, and urban success, but it is also the story of urban wretchedness and failure. Above all, it is the drama of a major city and its confrontation with the problems and opportunities of a modernizing world.