New York is not America Franois Weil writes but what America promisesperhaps its greatest promise. It may be hard to believe then that thequintessential symbol ... » 

New York is not America Franois Weil writes but what America promisesperhaps its greatest promise. It may be hard to believe then that thequintessential symbol of American enterprise and energy was once quite low inthe political and social hierarchy. Weil takes on the New York of myth andoffers a compelling chronicle of how it actually developed into a global city what some have called the capital of the twentyfirst century. He shows howthe uneasy tension between capitalism and multiculturalism has been at theheart of the citys immense physical social economic and culturaltransformation as well as of American notions of what urban space is forwhom it exists and how it is used. The book also captures what makes the cityexceptional from the arts and literature to popular culture and partypolitics and reveals New York as both a unique space and a model of Americandiversity. «