The New Yorkers: 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years, and the Untold Biography of the World's Greatest City

(Paperback)

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Longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Nonfiction From award-winning New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, the story of the worlds most exceptional city, told through 31 little-known yet pivotal inhabitants who helped define itnow in paperback. In Sam Robertss pulsating history of the worlds most exceptional metropolis, greet the city anew through thirty-one unique New Yorkers youve probably never heard ofjust in time for the citys 400th birthday. The New Yorkers introduces the first woman to appear nude in a motion picture, becoming the face of Civic Fame as Miss Manhattan; the couple whose soire ended the Gilded Age with an embarrassing bang; and the husband and wife who invented the modern celebrity talk show. It reveals the victim of the citys first recorded murder in the seventeenth century and the high school dropout who slashed crime rates in the twentieth. The notorious mobster who was imperiously banished from the city and the woman who successfully sued a bus company for racial discrimination a century before Rosa Parks. Some deserved monuments, but their grandeur was overlooked or forgotten. Others shepherded the city through its perpetual evolution, but discreetly. Virtually all have vanished into New Yorks uncombed history. The New Yorkers is a living biography of the worlds greatest city, and no one knows New York better than Sam Robertsor is better at bringing its history to life.

Reviews

An ingenious social history of Gotham rendered in deft profiles [Roberts] is an ace at compact biography Youre likely to finish the book with a new appreciation. * The Wall Street Journal *
Roberts knows his New York, in the way both of a scholar whos read everything ever published on the citys past and of a reporter whos spent his career engaging its people [The New Yorkers] abounds in rich portraits. * New York Times Book Review *
[The New Yorkers] is my favorite kind of municipal portrait, a gathering of profiles, not of the famous but the merely pivotal. * Chicago Tribune *
[The New Yorkers is] a detailed look at mostly unknown folks who contributed to the city Roberts focuses on ordinary people involved in extraordinary things. * New York Daily News *
Few writers have both a keen eye for biographical detail and the ability to place those details in a portrait that resonates across history. Sam Roberts, who has worked for The New York Times for decades, is that kind of writer, as he deftly proves in his new book. * Air Mail, "Staff Picks" *
Roberts knows New York on an almost cellular level Roberts tells an epic tale through these 31 stories, the evolution of a great city developed by people who wrote history with their lives. * New York Journal of Books *
Roberts, a legendary chronicler of the city, now writing obituaries for the New York Times, digs into the past and illuminates New Yorkers who didnt make it into the usual narratives of the city yet played a transformative role or personified a moment in its history . . . a congenial expert guide in essays. * The National Book Review *
[Sam Roberts] has done a fantastic job of engaging his readers with the past The New Yorkers is an excellent book that readers will find fascinating and full of interesting historical tidbits. * Bowling Green Daily News *
You dont have to be a New Yorker or even a big-city dweller to be delighted by the tales that author Sam Roberts offers This is history at its most enjoyable, no matter where you live or hail from. If you love a book full of surprises, put The New Yorkers on your radar. * The Bookworm Sez *
Entertaining and informative Robertss wry wit and rigorous research enliven accounts of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the displacement of white residents from Harlem, and more. The result is a treasure trove of New York City lore. * Publishers Weekly *
Americas largest and most polyglot city is impossible to bring into crystal-clear focus, but this book makes it come alive. A book guaranteed to enlighten and entertain anyone interested in NYC. * Kirkus Reviews *
Sam Roberts has crafted thirty-one biographical essays deeply researched and engagingly written that together constitute an excellent history of New York City. * Mike Wallace, author of Gotham *
Of the many dozens of historians who write about the Empire City, Sam Roberts has long been the most clever and most imaginative. The New Yorkers follows in his distinguished tradition. He writes a grand narrative through the biographies of mostly forgotten persons who made a difference at critical moments in the past 400 years. Fans of New York and its colorful history will not be disappointed. * Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University; editor-in-chief, The Encyclopedia of New York City *
From its post-American Revolution resurrection from the ashes to its meteoric rise to a global city, Sam Roberts renders a New York that is as captivating, gutsy, and colorful as its people. A fascinating and eye-opening window onto a storied city. * Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga *
Anything Sam Roberts has to write about New York City is worth reading, but with The New Yorkers he has outdone himself. Even those who know the city will be surprised to learn about many of the men and women profiled hereand surprised to learn what Sam has to tell them about the ones they do know. If history is biography, then this is both history and biography at their best. * Kevin Baker, author of PARADISE ALLEY *
In The New Yorkers, Sam Roberts illuminates the citys inimitable personality with a charming cast of groundbreakers, do-gooders, and rascals you will be delighted to get to know. Written with a wry eye, a tender heart, and gusto aplenty, this book provides a binge-worthy carnival of entertainment. * Joseph Berger, author of THE WORLD IN A CITY *
[Roberts] offers a solid education in New York architecture that pays close attention to the personalities, politics, economics, and natural disasters that inevitably accompany it . . . An entertaining picture of New York through the centuries. * Kirkus on A HISTORY OF NEW YORK IN 27 BUILDINGS *
[Roberts is] a witty and informed narrator whose enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. This lucid account will help New Yorkers to see their city in a new light. * Publishers Weekly on A HISTORY OF NEW YORK IN 27 BUILDINGS *
The best thing to happen to New York since Nathans hot dogs and Juniors cheesecake. * Marty Markowitz, former Borough President of Brooklyn on A HISTORY OF NEW YORK IN 101 OBJECTS *

Author Bio

Sam Roberts, a 50-year veteran of New York journalism, is an obituaries reporter and former Urban Affairs correspondent at the New York Times. He has hosted the New York Times "Close Up on TV, and the podcasts "Only in New York," anthologized in a book of the same name, and "The Caucus." He is the author of A History of New York in 27 Buildings, A History of New York in 101 Objects, and Grand Central, among other books. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, New York, and Air Mail. A history adviser to Federal Hall, he lives in New York.