You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II - Softcover

Kisseloff, Jeff

4.34

47 ratings by Goodreads

9780805209792: You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805209794 ISBN 13: 9780805209792

Publisher: Schocken Books, 1990

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Jeff Kisseloff brings together 137 New Yorkers who witnessed daily life in Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II. Dividing the city into ten neighborhoods and devoting a chapter and about a dozen voices to each, Kisseloff offers a brief historical introduction, then lets the eyewitnesses speak for themselves. We hear a survivor's account of the harrowing Triangle Shirtwaist fire as well as tales of the sweatshops, the settlement houses, and the immigrants from around the world who poured into the Lower East Side at the turn of the century. There are vignettes of John Reed, Louise Bryant, Eugene O'Neill, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We read of the bloody beginnings of the seamen's union and, down the street from the docks, visit with Thomas Wolfe and Edgar Lee Masters in the Hotel Chelsea. In Harlem, the Savoy and the Cotton Club were in their heyday, as were Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, and Adam Clayton Powell. Throughout the book, Kisseloff engages us in a unique conversation between an all-but-bygone time and our own. Illustrated with dozens of photos. “A can't-put-it-down oral history.” —David Gates, NEWSWEEK “Jeff Kisseloff...has done his work splendidly, listening to scores of old Manhattanites recalling their city through the foggy mists of intervening years... What a wonderful warehouse of memory this volume is! ...Indispensable... It is not only highly informative, but it is also great fun to read.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES “The lusty, sad, starting, funny, bawdy—even cruel—stories are so immediate one becomes convinced anew that New York is, as the song has it, a wonderful town.” —Publishers Weekly “The speakers are a diverse lot; many have lived through interesting events. The accounts are vivid and down to earth. We catch the distinct flavor of neighborhoods as they were.” —Library Journal

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Review:

"The lusty, sad, startling, funny, bawdy -- even cruel -- stories are so immediate one becomes convinced anew that New York is, as the song has it, a wonderful town." -- Publishers Weekly

"The speakers are a diverse lot; many have lived through interesting events. The accounts are vivid and down to earth. We catch the distinct flavor of neighborhoods as they were." -- Library Journal

"A can't-put-it-down oral history." -- David Gates, Newsweek

"In You Must Remember This, Jeff Kisseloff, an inquisitive New York journalist, has determined the contours of Manhattan's state of mind during a 50-year period that ended with World War II. He has done his work splendidly, listening to scores of old Manhattanites recalling their city through the foggy mists of intervening years... What a wonderful warehouse of memory this volume is!... Indispensable... It is not only highly informative, but it is also great fun to read." -- Richard F. Shepard, New York Times

About the Author:

Jeff Kisseloff, a native New Yorker, is the author of The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920-1961. He is a veteran reporter and editor and the grandson of one of the country's first TV dealers. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and lives in New York City.

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