Throw it in your backpack, hop on the subway, and explore.

To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe. In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. Readers will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant's despotic regime, Indian wars, slave resistance and revolt, the Revolutionary War and the defeat of Washington's army on Brooklyn Heights, the destructive seven years of British occupation, New York as the nation's first capital, the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, the Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads, the growth of the city as a port and financial center, the infamous draft riots of the Civil War, the great flood of immigrants, the rise of mass entertainment such as vaudeville and Coney Island, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the birth of the skyscraper. Here too is a cast of thousands--the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Clement Moore, who saved Greenwich Village from the city's street-grid plan; Herman Melville, who painted disillusioned portraits of city life; and Walt Whitman, who happily celebrated that same life. We meet the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Boss Tweed and his nemesis, cartoonist Thomas Nast; Emma Goldman and Nellie Bly; Jacob Riis and Horace Greeley; police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt; Colonel Waring and his "white angels" (who revolutionized the sanitation department); millionaires John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and William Randolph Hearst; and hundreds more who left their mark on this great city. The events and people who crowd these pages guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America, and a book that will mesmerize everyone interested in the peaks and valleys of American life as found in the greatest city on earth. Gotham is a dazzling read, a fast-paced, brilliant narrative that carries the reader along as it threads hundreds of stories into one great blockbuster of a book.

New York City has had a profound influence on the Marvel Comics universe. Unlike Batman's Gotham City or Superman's Metropolis, the Marvel superheroes - Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers - are grounded firmly in the streets of New York, working and living beside us. This fun and informative guide will take you through those streets, pointing out locations of interest along the way. Peter Parker's apartment in the West Village? We'll show you how to get there. Looking for the Avengers headquarters? They might give you funny looks when you show up at the Frick Museum, but don't worry, you're in the right place. You'll also discover why Stan Lee decided to use New York as his backdrop in the first place, and what effect that decision has had on subsequent generations of comic book artists and writers. Whether you're a curious traveller or just a Marvel Comics fan, The Marvel Comics Guide to New York Citygives a fresh and fun new look at the greatest city in the world - and the Marvel universe.

This book is dedicated to the proposition that living in New York City is something extraordinary and wonderful. However, the transition from newcomer to New Yorker isn¿t necessarily achieved without some discomfort. To minimize the difficulties involved in moving to the Big Apple, we have written the Newcomer¿s Handbook® for Moving to and Living in New York City, which has been continually updated since its 1980 inception, in order to keep up with change in this fastest-paced of cities. These pages will help you navigate this magnificent city and set you on the path to becoming a New Yorker yourself. Whether you are looking for the right neighborhood, the right health club, the right synagogue, or simply a quiet, green oasis, these chapters will guide you in your search.