In this utterly immersive volume, Mike Wallace captures the swings of prosperity and downturn, from the 1898 skyscraper-driven boom to the Bankers' Panic of 1907, the labor upheaval, and violent repression during and after the First World War. Here is New York on a whole new scale, moving from national to global prominence -- an urban dynamo driven by restless ambition, boundless energy, immigrant dreams, and Wall Street greed. Within the first two decades of the twentieth century, a newly consolidated New York grew exponentially. The city exploded into the air, with skyscrapers jostling for prominence, and dove deep into the bedrock where massive underground networks of subways, water pipes, and electrical conduits sprawled beneath the city to serve a surging population of New Yorkers from all walks of life. New York was transformed in these two decades as the world's second-largest city and now its financial capital, thriving and sustained by the city's seemingly unlimited potential. Wallace's new book matches its predecessor in pure page-turning appeal and takes America's greatest city to new heights.

Mike Wallace is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the director of the Gotham Center for New York City History. He is the co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Introduction PART ONE: CONSOLIDATIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS 1. Mergers 2. Acquisitions 3. Consolidation 4. Wall Street 5. Critics and Crisis 6. Who Rules New York? PART TWO: CONSTRUCTION AND CONNECTION 7. Sky Boom 8. Arteries 9. Ligaments 10. Housing 11. Industrial and Commercial City PART THREE: CULTURES 12. Acropoli 13. Show Biz 14. Popular Cultures 15. Seeing New York PART FOUR: CONFRONTATIONS 16. Progressives 17. Repressives 18. Union Town 19. Radicals 20. Bending Gender 21. Black Metropolis 22. Insurgent Art PART FIVE: WARS 23. Over There? 24. Over Here Acknowledgments References Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects