Review by Booklist Review
Trager is not an exciting writer. His recitations of statistics are dutiful, and his name-dropping discomfiting. He personifies Manhattanites' inevitable preoccupation with the cost of housing. Still, the dedicated reader will find caches of quirky data in this history of Manhattan's West Side such as the fact that turn-of-the-century New York was home to 150,000 horses, each of which produced 25 pounds of manure daily. This item informs a section on smells. Trager also describes his beloved West Side in terms of noise, transportation, dirt, fashion, crime, food, schools, gossip, and art. The backbone of the book is the focus on apartment buildings. His chronology of tenants and their ethnicity and economic levels adds up to a time-lapse film of the changes this densely populated area has weathered with impressive flexibility. The 65 black-and-white photographs that will illustrate the text were not available for review. Chronology and bibliography; to be indexed. DK. 974.7'104 Manhattan (New York, New York) History / New York (New York) History 1898-1951 / New York (New York) 1951- / Historic buildings New York (New York) / Manhattan (New York, New York) Buildings, structures, etc. / New York (New York) Buildings, structures, etc. [OCLC] 86-47665
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
