Manhattan '45

by JanMorris (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  1998

  $38.83

  In 1945, New York City stood at the pinnacle of its cultural and economic power. Never again would the city possess the unique mixture of innocence and sophistication, romance and formality, generosity and confidence which characterized it in this moment of triumph. In Manhattan '45, acclaimed travel writer and historian Jan Morris evokes the city in all its romantic grandeur. From its beguilingly idiosyncratic architectural style to its unmistakable slang, post-War New York springs to life through Morris's brisk, affectionate prose. Morris visits Wall Street, Harlem, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side. She rides the trollies, the El, the Hudson River ferries, and the Twentieth Century Limited. She dines at Schrafft's and Le Pavillon, drinks ale at McSorley's Saloon, sips Manhattans at the Manhattan Club, and spots celebrities at El Morocco. She meets Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, Leo Durocher, I. B. Singer, and Dizzy Gillespie. And she tours the tenements of Hell's Kitchen and the Gashouse district, as well as the Foundling Hospital where the crushing realities of poverty belie the unchallenged exuberance of the age. Taking into account both Social Register and slum, Manhattan '45 celebrates New York's Golden Age as a place where, for one unrepeatable moment in history, anything seemed possible.

• Used

  Paperback
  1989

  $3.47

  This picture of New York at its zenith, in 1945, describes the arrival of 14,000 American servicemen and women after the end of World War II. Disembarking, as it were, with the GIs we see the city through their eyes and get the full impact of the excitement and hope that abounded in that year. The characters of the city at that time - Jackson Pollock, Mayor La Guardia, Robert Moses, and many not so famous - are portrayed. Jan Morris is the author of Pax Britannica , Spain , Venice , Oxford and several other books.