Postcards from Manhattan

Though known for its enduring landmarks, New York City has experienced sweeping changes over the years. It has seen buildings rise and fall; fashions come and go; and neighborhoods flourish, fade, and reinvent themselves.

Through authentic postcard images and messages, Postcards from Manhattan takes you on a guided tour of New York old and new. Arranged by region, 120 beautiful postcards show the evolution of seven distinct areas of the city: the tip of Manhattan, lower Manhattan, midtown Manhattan, upper Manhattan, Central Park, the East Side, and the West Side. You'll visit lost New York, where magnificent hotels like the Astor pampered the rich and famous. You'll see the changing face of landmarks like Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. And you'll view sights that continue to attract visitors today--the towering Empire State building, legendary Tavern on the Green, and beautiful Central Park.

Postcards From Manhattan offers a unique view of a city that has changed with the times, while retaining its distinctive style and spirit. Throughout, you'll learn how the city that never sleeps has attracted, captivated, and mesmerized New Yorkers and visitors alike--year after year, decade after decade.

George J. Lankevich received his PhD in American History from Columbia University. He taught for over thirty years in the City University of New York, and is now a professor emeritus. Dr. Lankevich is the author of over twenty volumes of history, including American Metropolis: A History of New York City.

Publishers Weekly

This postcard-shaped, spiral-bound book gives readers a walking tour of Manhattan, from Battery Park to the top of the island via a terrific set of vintage and contemporary postcards. The images generally document one or another landmark building or site straightforwardly-with the rare fanciful or moody shot. Yet what sometimes emerges is less a collection of postcards than one man's overwrought love letter to New York. Historian Lankevich captions the cards in an informative, but often deliriously over-the-top manner: the Stock Exchange is "one of the most intimidating places on earth." Lankevich also writes, "Everything about Manhattan is stupendous and inadequate....It is a place of blind ambitions, intellectual hauteur, and frightening indifference." One need not be a Brooklynite to ask: "Everything?" Yet when the original inscriptions are visible or provided by Lankevich, they are bizarre, hilarious and romantic. "The Matt Hudsons" write: "Well Chas! This is some place. Boy, no place for an Okie! They don't even speak our language." One shows an entire street covered with hanging laundry, with the mysterious scrawled inscription: "Please-stop praying, if you don't, we will all be drowned. Jack." The overall impression is of a group of transfixed outsiders looking in. Combine that with vintage drawings and photographs of places like the Empire State Building, Riverside Drive mansions, a teeming Hester Street, and cheesy productions incorporating all of the most famous at once-and the result is an unusual perspective on a much-vaunted metropolis. (Feb.)

George J. Lankevich received his PhD in American History from Columbia University. He taught for over thirty years in the City University of New York, and is now a professor emeritus. Dr. Lankevich is the author of over twenty volumes of history, including New York City: A Short History.