Manhattan '45

by Jan Morris

Hardcover, 1987

Status

Available

Genres

History

Nonfiction

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1987.

Description

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.… (more)

Media reviews

NY Times

Thus, Ms. Morris's rendition of the city's 1945 moods conveys what it felt like to live in New York at that time. For much of the detail, Ms. Morris has depended on research at the New-York Historical Society and on conversations with battalions of New York friends who were there. The passages dealing with later times reflect her own reactions and convey what it feels like to travel in the city. Jan Morris is the traveler we would all like to be. World-weary only to the point of being prepared at any moment to explore geography, speech or native behavior in search of a new nugget of understanding that will revive her spirit, she finds it; we probably would not.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Othemts

Manhattan '45 (1985) by Jan Morris attempts to capture New York City at the time of its greatest success, optimism, influence and power, just as the Second World War comes to an end. This is not a travel book so much as an historical recreation. The author never even visited New York until nearly a decade later. Writing in 1985, the book is full of copious footnotes where Morris tells us what is gone and different. Reading this an additional 25 years later my mind adds another layer of meta-analysis of things further lost and changed in Manhattan's continuous build and demolish cycle.

This book is filled with details of life and how it was lived in 1945 mostly from books, letters, photographs and interviews. Everything's discussed in categories and in a gossipy tone that covers people, places, race, class, shopping, transportation, music, technology, slums, mansions, art, parties, and schools. I kind of wish I'd taken better notes on this book since it's full of fun little tidbits, but no great memorable themes. I'd like to read it again, perhaps while in Manhattan, the book tucked under my arm as I visit what's there and what once was.… (more)