The Park and the People

By Roy Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Blackmar,

Book cover of The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

Book description

This "exemplary social history" (Kirkus Reviews) is the first full-scale account of Central Park ever published. Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig tell the story of Central Park's people-the merchants and landowners who launched the project; the immigrant and African-American residents who were displaced by the park; the politicians, gentlemen, and


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Park and the People as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

What’s not to love about a book that starts with the release of invasive starlings and ends with Donald Trump’s New York real estate deals? (And along the way describes a thousand equally fascinating events.) Throughout this richly detailed history of the nation’s most famous urban park, Rosenzweig and Blackmar always keep everyday New Yorkers in focus, highlighting how they shaped the park as surely as did urban elites. The result is one of the city’s most democratic spaces.

If you love The Park and the People...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up


Want books like The Park and the People?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 82 books like The Park and the People.

Browse books like The Park and the People

Book cover of A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek
Book cover of Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
Book cover of Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Providence Canyon and the Soils of the South

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,006

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Park and the People, you might also like...

Book cover of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier,

The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.

It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. Brené Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".

It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher,


Book cover of Benghazi! A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink

Benghazi! A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink by Ethan Chorin,

Benghazi: A New History is a look back at the enigmatic 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, its long-tail causes, and devastating (and largely unexamined) consequences for US domestic politics and foreign policy. It contains information not found elsewhere, and is backed up by 40 pages of


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Central Park, Donald Trump, and New York City?

Central Park 12 books
Donald Trump 69 books
New York City 1,169 books