New York: The Altar of the Modern World. Wandering Pilgrims Historical Guide

Forward to the Second Edition ............................................ 1
Chapter One. THE EMOTION
A Verbal Picture of the Urban Universe ..................... 3
The modern pilgrimage ............................ 4
A Character Study of a Great City .................... 6
New York City and the American identity ................... 11
Chapter Two. THE HISTORY
The City of islands ............................. 16
Early days - Native Americans, beavers and first Dutch
settlements ................................ 20
The \"Purchase\" of Manhattan ................................. 21
New Amsterdam .................................... 22
Nutmeg in exchange for Manhattan ...................... 24
From New Amsterdam to New York ............... 25
New York and the birth of the free press ............... 26
The American Revolution and New York ............. 31
New York and the creation of the United States .......... 36
First capital and the Great Compromise Dinner .......... 38
The dawn of the metropolis - a 19th-century kaleidoscopic
mosaic ............................. 39
The City of the World - the 20th Century and the New
Millennium ........................................ 45
Chapter Three. THE JOURNEY
The castles of the new Babylon ......................... 52
A stroll through Manhattan .............................. 53
i. The gilded streets ..................... 53
ii. Of butchers and piers, of tailors and warehouses ..... 60
iii. A village in the City ............... 68
iv. The artful SoHo. Robert De Niro\'s beloved TRIangle
BEyound CAnal ...................... 74
v. Three squares and the lights of the City ............. 77
vi. Hell\'s Kitchen\'s beauty and the urban chic of
the metropolis ................................... 81
vii. The fairy tale of Central Park .............................. 93
viii. The \"New money\" glamour and the serenity of \"old
money\" ............. 95
ix. Uptown .................. 101
x. The melting pot and ethnic enclaves ...................... 104
New York is not only Manhattan ................................... 108
i. The charm of Brooklyn ................. 108
ii. The colourful Queens ..................... 111
iii. The hard Bronx .......................... 112
iv. The countryside Staten Island ............ 114
Urban Tales ................................... 115
i. The desert inside you ..... 115
ii. Breakfast iat Katz\'s Deli ..... 119
iii. Urban jungle unexpected encounters ..... 121
iv. Grocery in campaign fever ..... 123
v. Sacrament of the first hours ..... 125
vi. Defeating Satan ..... 128
In Lieu of an Epilogue: No illusions about America\'s future ..... 130
Photo Gallery ............ 134
Notes ................ 198