Unearthing
Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City , by Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall. Yale University Press, 374 pages, $39.95. New York is a city that eats its history. As soon as market forces decree that a neighborhood must be put to a new use, developers and their architects swoop in to alter street Read MoreGilded City: Scandal and Sensation in Turn-of-the-Century New York , by M.H. Dunlop. William Morrow, 296 pages, $25.
When the gulf between rich and poor is broadest, scandal blossoms. This was New York in the 1890's: flush from a two-decade boom, stunned by a Wall Street panic early in 1893, spiraling into a century-ending depression. The Read MoreFat of the Land: Garbage in New York–The Last Two Hundred Years , by Benjamin Miller. Four Walls Eight Windows, 315 pages, $18.
Garbage is a problem for all people who stay put, especially those who live in close quarters on islands. For nearly 300 years, New Yorkers lived on one island, Manhattan; excepting Bronx mainlanders, Read More
