City of Fortune: Inequality and the Making of Contemporary New York

A powerful history of New York’s transformation from a city of middle-class aspiration to one of entrenched inequality.

Postwar New York City famously expired in a 1970s tableau of burning Bronx tenements, subway graffiti, crushing debt, and the tabloid headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” From its ashes the city reemerged to reach new heights, whether in stock averages or the gleaming pencil towers punctuating Midtown. But at ground level the city’s basic institutions were cracking. The city...