New York City on paper

For the definitive history of New York City from its birth to the end of the 19th century, you won’t find a better read than the Pulitzer Prize–winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (Oxford University Press, 1998). Another recommended historical look at the growth of New York City — this one told in a breezy narrative tone — is Epic of New York City: A Narrative History, by Edward Robb Ellis (Kodansha, 1990).
One of master biographer Robert A. Caro’s early works, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (Vintage, 1975), focuses on how the vision of master builder Robert Moses transformed New York to what it became in the second half of the 20th century. In Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (Simon & Schuster, 1983), David McCullough devotes his estimable talents to the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The companion volume to a PBS Series (see New York: A Documentary Film later in this chapter), New York: An Illustrated History, by Ric Burns, Lisa Ades, and James Sanders (Knopf, 2003) uses lavish photographs and illustrations to show the growth of New York City. The great essayist E.B. White’s classic, Here is New York (Little Bookroom, 1999), is as relevant today as it was in 1948 when it was written. Another timeless masterpiece is Miroslav Sasek’s illustrated children’s book from 1960, This is New York (Universe Books, 2003). Both books are available in recent reprints. One of New York’s best chronicler’s is long-time newspaperman, Pete Hamill. His Downtown, (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2004) is a wonderful history of Manhattan from Times Square to Battery Park.