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Harlem, February 2011
Hardcover
The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
February 2011
On Sale: February 1, 2011
448 pages ISBN: 0802119107 EAN: 9780802119100 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Harlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in
the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of
Black America, Harlem's twentieth century renaissance
changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is
only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and
varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents
the first complete chronicle of this remarkable place. From Henry Hudson's first contact with native Harlemites,
through Harlem's years as a colonial outpost on the edge of
the known world, Gill traces the neighborhood's story,
marshaling a tremendous wealth of detail and a host of
fascinating figures from George Washington to Langston
Hughes. Harlem was an agricultural center under British rule
and the site of a key early battle in the Revolutionary War.
Later, wealthy elites including Alexander Hamilton built
great estates there for entertainment and respite from the
epidemics ravaging downtown. In the nineteenth century,
transportation urbanized Harlem and brought waves of
immigrants from Germany, Italy, Ireland, and elsewhere.
Harlem's mix of cultures, extraordinary wealth and extreme
poverty was electrifying and explosive. Extensively researched, impressively synthesized, eminently
readable, and overflowing with captivating characters,
Harlem is an ambitious, sweeping history, and an impressive
achievement.
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