Why read The Park and the People?

Book cover of The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

Book description

This "exemplary social history" (Kirkus Reviews) is the first full-scale account of Central Park ever published. Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig tell the story of Central Park's people-the merchants and landowners who launched the project; the immigrant and African-American residents who were displaced by the park; the politicians, gentlemen, and…

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American history

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Park and the People as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Aaron Poochigian

Author

This book grounded my knowledge of the park in the lives that have interacted with it for the past 175 years.

Blackmar and Rosenzweig dig deep into the people behind the creation of the park—the businessmen who spearheaded the project; the immigrant and African-American property-owners displaced through eminent domain; the politicians and artists who worked together on its design; the German and Irish laborers who built it; the New Yorkers to whom Central Park has been a refuge; and the tourists to whom it is a marvel.

Those personal histories have stayed with me and become as much a part…

From Aaron's list on books about Central Park from a budding naturalist.

Drew A. Swanson

Author

What’s not to love about a book that starts with the release of invasive starlings and ends with Donald Trump’s New York real estate deals? (And along the way describes a thousand equally fascinating events.) Throughout this richly detailed history of the nation’s most famous urban park, Rosenzweig and Blackmar always keep everyday New Yorkers in focus, highlighting how they shaped the park as surely as did urban elites. The result is one of the city’s most democratic spaces.

From Drew's list on why American parks look the way they do.