Publisher's Synopsis
From the 'New York Times' reporter whose beat has been Urban Affairs, the story of the world's most exceptional city, told through 31 little-known yet pivotal inhabitants - just in time for the city's 400th birthday. In Sam Roberts's vast pulsating history, you'll meet the city anew through 31 key New Yorkers you've probably never heard of. 'The New Yorkers' introduces us to the first woman to appear nude in a motion picture, becoming the face of Civic Fame as Miss Manhattan; the couple whose soirée ended the Gilded Age with an embarrassing bang; and the husband and wife who invented the modern celebrity talk show. You'll discover the victim of the city's first recorded murder and the high school dropout who slashed crime rates in the 20th century. The mobster who was remarkably banished from the city and the woman who sued a bus company for racial discrimination a century before Rosa Parks.
