This "exemplary social history" (Kirkus Reviews) is the first full-scale account of Central Park ever published. Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig tell the story of Central Park's people-the merchants and landowners who launched the project; the immigrant and African-American residents who were displaced by the park; the politicians, gentlemen, and artists who disputed its design and operation; the German gardeners, Irish laborers, and Yankee engineers who built it; and the generations of New Yorkers for whom Central Park was their only backyard. In tracing the park's history, Blackmar and Rosenzweig give us the history of New York, and bring to life larger issues about the meaning of the word "public" in a democratic society.

Winner of the 1993 Historic Preservation Book Award and the 1993 Urban History Association Prize for Best Book on North American Urban History.

About the Author

The late Roy Rosenzweig, Professor of History at George Mason University was the author of Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920. Elizabeth Blackmar, Professor of History at Columbia University, is the author of Manhattan for Rent, 1785-1850, also from Cornell.

Reviews

Ambitious and adventurous.... A surprising and deeply social account of the park's contentious past. A powerful historical resource for thinking about the shape American public spaces have taken.

-- Susan G. Davis * The Nation *

Original and provocative.... A deeply felt celebration of the role of public space.

-- Robert Fishman * New York Times Book Review *

Prodigiously researched, eloquent. An outstanding study of the evolution of Manhattan's Central Park.

* Publishers Weekly *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the 1993 Historic Preservation Book Awar.



Book Information
ISBN 9780801497513
Author Roy Rosenzweig
Format Paperback
Page Count 640
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 1361g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 168mm * 28mm