The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910 Paperback – January 11, 2028

Wow....I can't say enough good things about this book. I love good, meaty coffee table books, and this certainly fits the bill. The illustrations are simply dazzling. Many of the historic photos are colorized in a way I've never seen before. The cover of the book is a good example of what to expect inside....a huge picture with lots of detail painstakingly colorized that brings a real vibrancy to the work. My husband and I kind of get hypnotized staring at some of those colorized images of Mulberry street and Central Park.The actual book itself was much larger than I was expecting, and the quality of the illustrations were sharp and clear. Even the fonts in the side-bars added a wonderful period touch.And the text: Very nice! This is a whirlwind tour of NYC, so no topic has a ton of depth, but there are interesting sidebars with vignettes that provide humanizing details. I hope I don't sound like an advertisement....but for $27 you get a lot for your money. I wish there were more stunning coffee table books like this for other cities. Boston, anyone? Washington DC?

I loved this book. An exploration of virtually every aspect of life in New York during the Gilded Age, it combines fascinating historical background, entertaining anecdotes and a vast array of wonderful old photos and drawings to make you feel like you have travelled through time to visit the world's greatest city during an unparalleled period of growth, development and modernization. Any New Yorker will enjoy the countless origin stories of familiar neighborhoods, buildings, bridges and other landmarks. Any history buff will revel in its peek into life in a simpler time as the industrial influences that would forever change the city, country and world are just beginning to make their mark. Great, great stuff.

A fabulous coffee table book full of photos and information about NYC during the time when the Astors, Vanderbilts, Carnegies and others ruled the society and business in NYC. I read the book with Google Earth open on my laptop so I could search the many locations and addresses mentioned. I wanted to see if the mansions were still there and what an address looked like today. All aspects of life appear to be covered, including dining out, attending church, riding or driving through Central Park, immigration, etc. It is loaded with photographs although I'd love it if more were in color (was color photography even possible yet?) I only have two complaints about this book. First, as I mentioned, I Google Earth'd many of the addresses the author mentioned. It would have been nice if she had mentioned what happened to the building located at the address. Were they torn down to make way for skyscrapers? Converted into apartments? What happened to the mansions that lined Millionaire's Row at the turn of the century. Secondly, the text is frequently interrupted by an additional story about a party, an architect's relationship with the wealthy families, a neighborhood theater or something of additional interest. While these items are interesting and do add to the information being presented, I found it to be disruptive and distracting when reading the main test. It could have easily been presented at the end of each chapter so the reader doesn't have to remember to go back to the item, or interrupt the flow of the main text. Otherwise, a superb volume for anyone interested in the gilded age in New York City.

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I bought it because I attended a lecture by the author who gave a sneak peek at the contents so I know it has excellent information inside. What surprised me was the quality of the book. It's a good size with nice, thick pages. But, most importantly, the pictures inside are stunning. I don't know how they managed to get that level of detail out of pictures so old. I know I will spend hours just looking at the pictures.

This is more like a coffee-table book, with gorgeous pictures, colorized photographs, drawings, contemporary newspaper cut-outs, and the like. I found it superbly produced.In addition, however, the commentary was excellent. I learned so much about New York from this book!The contents included not just the mega-rich, but also the discussion of the tenements and the growth of Progressive thought as America moved into the Industrial age with brio and passion.Totally worth the price.

I kind of expected this book to be just a book full of pictures, but it is actually well researched, well written and much more in-depth about the “Golden Age” than I expected. It’s a good book.

Other reviews have said pretty much everything there is to say; my beef is that this is a photo survey of NY in general at about the turn of the century - NOT specifically about the RICH PEOPLE whom the age is named for. I was looking for a book that would've showed much more about these gilded age RICH PEOPLE, more snaps of their mansions, the interiors, the gilded age RICH PEOPLE themselves, what they wore, where they bought it, who designed it and supplied it. Besides Del's, where did they eat? What did they eat? How much was a Singer-Sargent portrait? How much was a carriage; how many servants was needed to support a 65 room mansion? When they shopped, how did they do it? What happened to all their stuff? In the spirit of being morbidly fascinated by and envious of Rich People, I wanted more, More, MORE.NOTE: I've discovered the book The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age [Dover 0-486-25250-7] a reprint of a 2 volume work from 1883/84. Opulent Interiors has pictures of about 95 private homes of the richest of the rich - almost all of them demolished within 50 years of being built; a $17.5 million dollar mansion, in 1880 $$, gone in 65 years! Updated text by Lewis/Turner/McQuillin dissects what your'e seeing [who built it, who influenced them, the statement they were making], the source of their wealth [how they got and lost it], how wealthy Americans began to define and solidify their position as a 'class' - well, all sorts of general things that you want to know about Gilded Age Rich People without having to read a gigantic book to get at it - really great.

ARRIVE TRES VITE ET DANS UN BON ETAT. SUPER CONTENTE.

An excellent addition to my history of NYC collection. This is such a beautiful, informative book... I can't believe how inexpensively I was able to purchase it. Fantastic!

A superb book for anyone interested in NYC history, or indeed the history of America. It looks like a coffee table book, large format and lots of pictures, so much indeed that it took me a weekend to 'flick' through it. The revelation is that the text, of which there is much, is hugely informative and demonstrates not only considerable research but a real love of the city and its people. A valuable addition to anyone's NY library.

If you like books of historical photographs, especially if you know New York City, you will love this book. The photo selection is excellent and covers the history of New York very well. The text is an excellent account of the story of New York, especially the waves of immigrants that made New York what it is today.

An excellent book with interesting text and illustrations that go a long way to recreate the period. A most attractice publication.