Four Streets and a Square: A History of Manhattan and the New York Idea

by Marc Aronson

Overview

From a Sibert Medalist comes the epic story of Manhattan—a magical, maddening island “for all” and a microcosm of America.

A veteran nonfiction storyteller dives deep into the four-hundred-year history of Manhattan to map the island’s unexpected intersections. Focusing on the evolution of four streets and a square (Wall Street, 42nd Street, West 4th Street, 125th Street, and Union Square) Marc Aronson explores how new ideas and forms of art evolved from social blending. Centuries of conflict—among original Americans and Europeans, slavers and the enslaved, rich and poor, immigrants and native-born—produced segregation, oppression, and violence, but also new ways of speaking, singing, and being American. From the Harlem Renaissance to Hammerstein, from gay pride in the Village to political clashes at Tammany Hall, this clear-eyed pageant of the island’s joys and struggles—enhanced with photos and drawings, multimedia links to music and film, and an extensive bibliography and source notes—is, above all, a love song to Manhattan’s triumphs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536205930
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1190L (what's this?)
File size:	178 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Marc Aronson is an award-winning author and editor whose books include 1968: Today’s Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change and1789: Twelve Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change, both coedited by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; War Is. . .: Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk About War, coedited by Patty Campbell; and Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies. He is part of the graduate faculty at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. Born in Manhattan, he now lives in New Jersey.

Marc Aronson is living proof of the magic of the world of writing books for young readers. He did not expect this to be his career—he went to New York University, where he earned a doctorate in American history, and worked in adult reference publishing. But when he saw an advertisement for an editor of a series of books about the lands and peoples of the world (The Portraits of the Nations series, originally published by Lippencott)—books he had grown up reading and loving—he applied for and won the job. Working on books for young people—and then meeting other authors and artists, reviewers, librarians, teachers—he found he was in a world he loved. Editing books about different nations, peoples, and cultures, he came to realize he wanted to publish fiction and poetry, as well as nonfiction for young people. He created Edge—a place for books that explored all of the borders and boundaries in growing up, from immigration to coming-of-age. He then began to write his own books.

Marc’s older son once asked him why his first book, Art Attack, was so different from the others. It is the one book he has written about art; all the others in some way relate to history or current events. In a way he experienced in nonfiction what many novelists go through: his first book was the most autobiographical. Marc grew up learning about radical art, avant-garde art, from his father, who was a painter and innovative scenic designer. The book was a form of passing on what he had learned. While all of his books are nonfiction, they all also have a personal dimension—a way that person, subject, idea, spoke to him. Marc grew up in a school where many families had suffered from the Red Scare, a school devoted to racial integration when that was the law, but often not the practice. Master of Deceit is, in a way, Marc visiting his own childhood and looking at the conflicts he grew up hearing about with his trained adult eyes.

Marc now wears many hats, he is part of the graduate faculty in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, where he trains librarians and teachers in using books with K–12 readers. He gives talks in schools to students, trains teachers and librarians—especially on the new Common Core standards, and he is exploring how nonfiction can flourish in the world of e-books and apps. For example, for Master of Deceit, he has found a film, You Can’t Get Away With It, that was crafted for J. Edgar Hoover and fits perfectly with chapter 7 (you can see the original poster for it on page 62). You can see the entire film for free by going to his website, www.marcaronson.com, where he also has a discussion guide for the book and other resources.

Table of Contents

How this Book is Organized 1

Two Books in One 2

Introduction: The Bridge 4

Creating the City: Wall Street 1600-1800 8

Chapter 1 Manna-hata 12

Chapter 2 Wall 18

Chapter 3 British New York 28

Chapter 4 Two City Hall Trials 39

Chapter 5 Revolution 49

Chapter 6 Capital 62

Chapter 7 Money 68

Building the City: Union Square 1800-1890 84

Chapter 8 Redrawing the Map 89

Chapter 9 Private Homes and Public Shopping 98

Chapter 10 The Wickedest House on the Wickedest Street 110

Chapter 11 Can the City Hold Together? 126

Chapter 12 New York's Civil War 138

Chapter 13 Across the Square 146

Chapter 14 "The Streets Belonged to Us" 157

The City Electric: 42nd Street 1900-1920s 170

Chapter 15 Greater New York 175

Chapter 16 The Immortal 183

Chapter 17 "Come On and Hear" 192

Difference: West 4th Street, 125th Street 1900-1930s 208

Chapter 18 "Our Whole Big Human Selves" 211

Chapter 19 War 222

Chapter 20 "The Pulse of the Negro World" 234

The City Suffers: Wall Street, 42nd Street, West 4th Street, 125th Street, Union Square 1930-1945 252

Chapter 21 "The Splendid Mirage" 255

Chapter 22 Depression New York 263

Chapter 23 "Sing, Sing, Sing"-Experiments in Integration 269

Chapter 24 "Tear Down the Old 281

World City, Fractured City, World City: 42nd Street, West 4th Street, Union Square, Wall Street, 125th Street 1945-present 292

Chapter 25 "Somewhere" 295

Chapter 26 New York Center, Left, Far Left 302

Chapter 27 Generations 316

Chapter 28 City on the Brink 326

Chapter 29 Windows on the World 346

Chapter 30 New York and the Nation, Two Versions 364

Terminology 378

Author's Note 379

Source Notes 383

Bibliography 407

Image Credits 418

Index 423

Editorial Reviews

This beautifully written book eloquently gives voice to the myriad of people who built New York into the singular city it is today. A profound declaration of love for the city of New York.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A well-organized and impeccably researched nonfiction book about the history of New York City from the 1600s to present. . . . A great choice for research or for those who can’t get enough of the Big Apple.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

In this ambitious, richly visual “biography of an island and an idea,” Aronson (Poisoned Water) covers 400 years of Manhattan history. . . An intersectionally inclusive, well-contextualized volume.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With meticulous detail and an innovative format, [Aronson] presents four hundred years of Manhattan’s history. . . Consider this Aronson’s four-hundred-plus-page love letter to his hometown.
—The Horn Book

Aronson’s love of his hometown shines through in this detailed history of and ode to the “idea” of New York. . . Aronson truly imparts a feeling of the city’s vigor and the degree to which immigrants made and make it.
—Booklist

In this ambitious, free-wheeling history of NYC, Aronson identifies five places of bustling activity that are emblematic of the city’s greatest aspirations.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Marc Aronson’s delightful history of New York City is a tribute to the city he loves, but one honest enough not to shy away from its conflicts and challenges over the years. Insightful, provocative, and fascinating, this is a read full of fresh discoveries no matter how much you think you already know about New York.
—Kevin Baker, author of The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence

What happened when a jam-packed, noisy, messy, dynamic city opened its arms to immigrants, peoples of various races, religions, ethnicities, and sexual orientations? Well, New York City happened. Marc Aronson’s fascinating Four Streets and a Square deftly portrays how one small island became a smorgasbord of music, art, theater, and finance, creating a uniquely American culture.
—Susan Kuklin, author of In Search of Safety: Voices of Refugees

Once again, historian Marc Aronson does his research and delivers.
—Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, award winning author of No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller

Marc Aronson infuses every fascinating page with a palpable love for the city itself—its chaos, its culture, its history, and its inherent drama. This book should be required reading for anyone who has ever stepped foot on the isle of Manhattan, and everyone else who aspires to.
—David Rockwell, architect and designer

Anyone who loves New York will love Four Streets and a Square. It is gorgeously illustrated and chock full of fascinating facts about every period of the city’s history.
—Dr. Tyler Anbinder, professor of history at George Washington University and author of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York

In this insightful book, Marc Aronson invites a new generation of readers to explore the island where New York City was born. Imaginatively conceived, vividly written, and creatively illustrated, Four Streets and a Square is a rewarding read.
—Robert W. Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian and professor emeritus at Rutgers University–Newark

From the Publisher

★ 2021-09-01
From the Munsee and Lenape peoples to the Covid-19 pandemic, this book presents the history of Manhattan and the essence of New York City.

Centering the narrative around Manhattan, specifically the four iconic thoroughfares of 125th Street, Forty-Second Street, Wall Street, and West Fourth Street, historian Aronson transports readers through the vast and complex history of New York City in a vivid accounting of its cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth. Written in a conversational tone and broken up into manageable units and chapters with handy snapshot timelines and ample illustrations, this work has appeal for readers interested in the forces that have shaped this unparalleled global city. As relayed here, New York’s past is filled with stories of bravery, hard work, determination, and perseverance—as well as being rife with racism, classism, sexism, antisemitism, ableism, and more. Leaders, activists, politicians, and icons are not framed simplistically as heroes; instead, Aronson presents them as the real people they were—sometimes motivated by greed, hatred, fear, and desire. The narrative includes Indigenous people, colonizers, enslaved people, immigrants, queer people, and people of all genders, and it incorporates a broad range of subjects including the arts, sports, and education. This beautifully written book eloquently gives voice to the myriad people who built New York into the singular city it is today.

A profound declaration of love for the city of New York. (terminology, author's note, source notes, bibliography, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews