Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City

by Catherine McNeur

Overview

George Perkins Marsh Prize, American Society for Environmental History
VSNY Book Award, New York Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America
Hornblower Award for a First Book, New York Society Library
James Broussard Best First Book Prize, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

With pigs roaming the streets and cows foraging in the Battery, antebellum Manhattan would have been unrecognizable to inhabitants of today’s sprawling metropolis. Fruits and vegetables came from small market gardens in the city, and manure piled high on streets and docks was gold to nearby farmers. But as Catherine McNeur reveals in this environmental history of Gotham, a battle to control the boundaries between city and country was already being waged, and the winners would take dramatic steps to outlaw New York’s wild side.

“[A] fine book which make[s] a real contribution to urban biography.”
—Joseph Rykwert, Times Literary Supplement

“Tells an odd story in lively prose…The city McNeur depicts in Taming Manhattan is the pestiferous obverse of the belle epoque city of Henry James and Edith Wharton that sits comfortably in many imaginations…[Taming Manhattan] is a smart book that engages in the old­ fashioned business of trying to harvest lessons for the present from the past.”
—Alexander Nazaryan, New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674979758
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2017
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Catherine McNeur is Associate Professor of History at Portland State University.

Editorial Reviews

In the decades before the Civil War, New York was rapidly becoming the largest and most important city in the western hemisphere. But mad dogs and wild pigs roamed its streets; garbage heaps, squatters, and shantytowns were commonplace; parks and public open spaces were practically non-existent; and epidemic disease was a constant threat. Catherine McNeur’s Taming Manhattan tells us how New York was literally cleaned up and transformed from a health hazard to an emerging world city. And she does it with beautiful prose, careful research, and persuasive argument. Altogether an excellent book.

Kenneth T. Jackson

[A] fine book which make[s] a real contribution to urban biography.

Times Literary Supplement - Joseph Rykwert

Tells an odd story in lively prose. This book implicitly alludes to the urban revival now stretching from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me., but whatever your thoughts on brewpubs and bike lanes, you probably haven’t read a municipal history that has a mayor ‘ready to tackle the hog problem.’…The city McNeur depicts in Taming Manhattan is the pestiferous obverse of the belle epoque city of Henry James and Edith Wharton that sits comfortably in many imaginations. McNeur’s town is a ‘veritable manure factory’ in which some 10,000 horses each deposit up to 40 pounds of manure a day, while the East River serves as a repository for human waste…[Taming Manhattan] is a smart book that engages in the old­-fashioned business of trying to harvest lessons for the present from the past.

New York Times - Alexander Nazaryan

Nearly two centuries before the Occupy Movement, New Yorkers rich and poor clashed over what shape their young city should take. In this superb history, McNeur recovers the bitter battles over feral hogs and untamed dogs, public parks, safe and pure food, effective sanitation, and the fate of the underclass. Making a safer and cleaner city for some, she concludes, also created a shadow city of poverty and filth for others. Taming Manhattan is a thrilling, vivid expedition into Gotham’s wild and often violent past.

Matthew Klingle

[A] fine book which make[s] a real contribution to urban biography.--Joseph Rykwert "Times Literary Supplement" (2/27/2015 12:00:00 AM)

Tells an odd story in lively prose. This book implicitly alludes to the urban revival now stretching from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me., but whatever your thoughts on brewpubs and bike lanes, you probably haven't read a municipal history that has a mayor 'ready to tackle the hog problem.' ...The city McNeur depicts in Taming Manhattan is the pestiferous obverse of the belle epoque city of Henry James and Edith Wharton that sits comfortably in many imaginations. McNeur's town is a 'veritable manure factory' in which some 10,000 horses each deposit up to 40 pounds of manure a day, while the East River serves as a repository for human waste... [Taming Manhattan] is a smart book that engages in the old--fashioned business of trying to harvest lessons for the present from the past.--Alexander Nazaryan "New York Times" (12/3/2014 12:00:00 AM)

In the decades before the Civil War, New York was rapidly becoming the largest and most important city in the western hemisphere. But mad dogs and wild pigs roamed its streets; garbage heaps, squatters, and shantytowns were commonplace; parks and public open spaces were practically non-existent; and epidemic disease was a constant threat. Catherine McNeur's Taming Manhattan tells us how New York was literally cleaned up and transformed from a health hazard to an emerging world city. And she does it with beautiful prose, careful research, and persuasive argument. Altogether an excellent book.--Kenneth T. Jackson, editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City

Nearly two centuries before the Occupy Movement, New Yorkers rich and poor clashed over what shape their young city should take. In this superb history, McNeur recovers the bitter battles over feral hogs and untamed dogs, public parks, safe and pure food, effective sanitation, and the fate of the underclass. Making a safer and cleaner city for some, she concludes, also created a shadow city of poverty and filth for others. Taming Manhattan is a thrilling, vivid expedition into Gotham's wild and often violent past.--Matthew Klingle, author of Emerald City

From the Publisher

…a scholarly history that tells an odd story in lively prose. This book implicitly alludes to the urban revival now stretching from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me., but whatever your thoughts on brewpubs and bike lanes, you probably haven't read a municipal history that has a mayor "ready to tackle the hog problem"…[Taming Manhattan] is a smart book that engages in the old-fashioned business of trying to harvest lessons for the present from the past. Best of all, a quiet rage animates Ms. McNeur's writing, a dismay at the inequalities of the past that, she clearly believes, have survived into the present.

The New York Times - Alexander Nazaryan