A New York Public Library Outstanding Reference Book

A visual celebration of nearly 400 years of New York City's history.

To celebrate the one-hundredth anniversay of Greater New York, what Alfred Kazin calls "a treasure of a book" is now a gorgeous paperback. The New York Times Book Review raved that The Historical Atlas of New York City "may be as close to a printed CD-ROM as paper can get." Now, this visual cornucopia of full-color maps, charts, photographs, and drawings covering four hundred years of the city's history is a trade paperback. Neighborhood by neighborhood, the Atlas takes the reader back through history, detailing such crucial events as the initial settlement of 270 people in thirty log houses; John Jacob Astor's meteoric rise from humble fur trader to the richest and most powerful man in the city; Frederick Law Olmsted's design for Central Park; and the fascinating ethnic mix of modern Queens. For both history buffs and the twenty-five million people who visit New York each year, The Historical Atlas of New York City is the guide to America's first city.