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“A riveting account of the men and women of Indigenous, Dutch, African, Jewish, and English descent who populated this thriving seventeenth-century port. Filled with new knowledge, eloquent prose, and international intrigue, Russell Shorto’s history will take your breath away.”
— Tiya Miles, National Book Award winner and author of Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
“More than any other person, Russell Shorto rescued New Amsterdam from historic obscurity. Shorto is a great researcher and a persuasive storyteller.”
Why is New York the archetypal modern city – brash, bold, pulsing with energy? The author of The Island at the Center of the World offers up a thrilling narrative of how New York came to be.
In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general.
Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery. The book draws from newly translated materials and illuminates neglected histories — of religious refugees, Indigenous tribes, and free and enslaved Africans.
Taking Manhattan tells the riveting story of the birth of New York City as a center of capitalism and pluralism, a foundation from which America would rise. It also shows how the paradox of New York’s origins — boundless opportunity coupled with subjugation and displacement — reflects America’s promise and failure to this day. Russell Shorto, whose work has been described as “astonishing” (New York Times) and “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune), has once again mined archival sources to offer a vibrant tale and a fresh and trenchant argument about American beginnings.
“Shorto seamlessly weaves together secondary literature with newly translated Dutch documents to astonishing effect. This narrative is the historiographical Rosetta Stone of how New York City was born. With keen exactitude, Shorto explains how the Atlantic Slave Trade was an essential component of the building of New York City. As both a work of American and European history Taking Manhattan soars!”
“New Amsterdam — pluralistic, capitalistic, pulsing with energy — has survived. Best of all, Shorto himself feels everywhere present in these spirited, revelatory pages.”
“In this fascinating book, Russell Shorto unravels the DNA inside New York. I think I know New York, but it opened my eyes to the city and its rich history.”
Taking Manhattan picks up where The Island at the Center of the World leaves off. Shorto’s masterful narrative brings the much-neglected stories of Native Americans and African Americans into a heady stew that is our real founding story.
