Big Apple ABCs. [The Encyclopedia of New York by The Editors of New York Magazine]
Since its founding in 1624, New York City has been a place that creates things. What began as a trading post for beaver pelts soon transformed into a hub of technological, social, and cultural innovation—but beyond fostering literal inventions like the elevator (inside Cooper Union in 1853), Q-tips (by Polish immigrant Leo Gerstenzang in 1923), General Tso’s chicken (reimagined for American tastes in the 1970s by one of its Hunanese creators), the singles bar (1965 on the Upper East Side), and Scrabble (1931 in Jackson Heights), the city has given birth to or perfected idioms, forms, and ways of thinking that have changed the world, from Abstract Expressionism to Broadway, baseball to hip-hop, news blogs to neoconservatism to the concept of “downtown.”
Those creations and more are all collected in The Encyclopedia of New York, an A-to-Z compendium of unexpected origin stories, hidden histories, and useful guides to the greatest city in the world, compiled by the editors of New York Magazine (a city invention itself, since 1968) and featuring contributions from Rebecca Traister, Jerry Saltz, Frank Rich, Jonathan Chait, Rhonda Garelick, Kathryn VanArendonk, Christopher Bonanos, and more. Here you will find something fascinating and uniquely New York on every page: a history of the city’s skyline, accompanied by a tour guide’s list of the best things about every observation deck; the development of positive thinking and punk music; appreciations of seltzer and alternate-side-of-the-street parking; the oddest object to be found at Ripley’s Believe It or Not!; musical theater next to muckracking and mugging; and the unbelievable revelation that English muffins were created on...West Twentieth Street. Whether you are a lifelong resident, a curious newcomer, or an armchair traveler, this is the guidebook you’ll need, straight from the people who know New York best.
I will read almost anything New York City related, especially if it's history related. There's a weird sense of pride, whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you know it or not, that your experiences in the city, especially when you're city born and bred, put you in a special class. NYC's where the action's at. The world floods around you shaping you uniquely, and often we have no awareness of this until conversing with outsiders and contrasting life experiences. No one opens the door for a Native New Yorker.
The Encyclopedia of New York, from The Editors of New York Magazine, highlights many aspects of that singular formation. For the record, that New Yorker pride doesn't always jive well with the actual history of the city, pre-Civil War, pre-electricity. Shoot, maybe even pre-'80s depending on who you are. But history can't be denied, only examined and contextualized.
Admittedly, I'm not the most avid reader of New York Magazine, but I do have an underlying respect for it. As its editors take us through key moments, inventions, policies and practices that either originated or were forged in the city, a wild transformation can be seen taking place. Sure, New York has for centuries been a center of power and influence - a port location, a finance haven, a slave trading hub - but the move to becoming a multi-field center of innovation and invention, innovation and invention fueled by immigrants and non-white citizenry, is perhaps what has put New York most on the world map culturally.
What the reader gets reading this encyclopedia is a comprehensive story of the city, A to Z. One detailing how the United States and the world have been shaped and crafted in New York. Maybe it's the thick blurbs of text I'm not the biggest fan of when it comes to the magazine, and sure, it was a bit daunting reading this encyclopedia, but respective descriptions of highlighted terms were relatively and appropriately concise. I learned a lot and my roots to my hometown, the (incorporated) city of my birth and the city that shaped me. 5 stars from me.
The Encyclopedia of New York was due for publication December 02, 2020.
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