Before Central Park by Sara Cedar Miller


ISBN
9780231181945
Published
Binding
Hardcover
Pages
624
Dimensions
156 x 235mm

With more than eight hundred sprawling green acres in the middle of one of the world's densest cities, Central Park is an urban masterpiece. Designed in the middle of the nineteenth century by the landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it is a model for city parks worldwide. But before it became Central Park, the land was the site of farms, businesses, churches, wars, and burial grounds-and home to many different kinds of New Yorkers.

This book is the authoritative account of the place that would become Central Park. From the first Dutch family to settle on the land through the political crusade to create America's first major urban park, Sara Cedar Miller chronicles two and a half centuries of history. She tells the stories of Indigenous hunters, enslaved people and enslavers, American patriots and British loyalists, the Black landowners of Seneca Village, Irish pig farmers, tavern owners, Catholic sisters, Jewish protesters, and more. Miller unveils a British fortification and camp during the Revolutionary War, a suburban retreat from the yellow fever epidemics at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the properties that a group of free Black Americans used to secure their right to vote. Tales of political chicanery, real estate speculation, cons, and scams stand alongside democratic idealism, the striving of immigrants, and powerfully human lives. Before Central Park shows how much of the history of early America is still etched upon the landscapes of Central Park today.
49.95


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Enter your Postcode or Suburb to view availability and delivery times.

Other Titles by Sara Cedar Miller

Seeing Central Park
35.00
35.00
_% Off

You might also like

Russia
26.99
26.99
_% Off
Emperor of Rome
27.99
27.99
_% Off
Fake History
24.99
24.99
_% Off
Jerusalem
26.99
26.99
_% Off
Hell Ship
24.99
24.99
_% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.