Russell Shorto book signing: Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America.

Russell Shorto, Johnstown native and acclaimed author, will come to the Heritage Discovery Center for a book reading for his latest non-fiction book, Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America." Shorto’s work has been praised as “first-rate intellectual history” (Wall Street Journal), “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune) and simply “astonishing” (New York Times).

 

In Taking Manhattan, Russell Shorto explains how New York became the archetypal modern city – brash, bold, pulsing with energy. 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. 

 

One critic raved, “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.”

 

Russell Shorto, author of the bestsellers Smalltime, Revolution Song, Amsterdam, and The Island at the Center of the World, is the director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society. He lives in Maryland.

 

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are encouraged due to limited seating. Books will be available for sale.