Ted Steinberg is the Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1961, Steinberg has held fellowships from the Michigan Society of Fellows, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and Yale University. He has worked as an environmental historian for twenty-five years and is the author of five other books.
"Steinberg accessibly traces the harbor’s natural history from the
booming colonial market in underwater (literally) property and the
prescient Manhattan grid plan, both of which fueled development, to
the lessons delivered by Hurricane Sandy.... [Steinberg] challenges
the conventional arguments that geography is destiny and that New
York is an “infinite proposition” — a perpetually renewable
resource. And he makes the strong case that for all the ecological
advantages of urban living, hyperdensity by itself is not
necessarily a sound environmental strategy"
*The New York Times*
"How did the lush ecosystems of the lower Hudson Valley become one
of the world’s premier urban centers, dedicated to the illusion
that it could somehow transcend the constraints of the natural
world? Ted Steinberg’s explanation in Gotham Unbound is erudite,
wise, unfailingly readable—and alarming as hell. This is
environmental history at its best, and a must-read for anyone who
has ever wondered what lies ahead for New York City."
*Edwin Burrows, coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize winning Gotham*
"Magnificently demonstrated in this unique, highly revealing
history of Greater New York, prize-winning author Ted Steinberg is
a pioneer in the field of ecological history. From Henry Hudson's
magical discoveries in 1609 to Hurricane Sandy's rampant
destruction, Steinberg narrates four centuries of never-ending
landed fill-ins, destruction of estuaries, and building. Every page
about this eastern landed frontier reveals the world's leading city
from a fresh, crucially important perspective."
*Walter LaFeber, winner of the Bancroft Prize and Tisch University
Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, and author of The American
Age*
"This is the best history of an American city I have
read—stunningly original, brilliant in research and argument,
delightful to read, and vital for our urban future. Whatever New
Yorkers may have achieved in the accumulation of wealth or social
wellbeing, they have written a tragic story in ecological terms.
Henceforth we will not be able to think of the city without also
thinking of it as one of the world’s most damaged estuaries and of
the teeming diversity of plant and animal life that once lived
here."
*Donald Worster, winner of the Bancroft Prize, University of Kansas
and Renmin University of China, author of A Passion for Nature: The
Life of John Muir*
"Gotham Unbound goes deeper than underground history; it is
underwater history! Steinberg shows how the development of
Manhattan's waterways and lands -- often out of sight -- shaped the
creation of today's New York City. He reminds us that unnatural
cities stubbornly remain part of the natural world -- and that
world has a history. To really understand New York City, leave Wall
Street behind, put on your hip-waders, and jump in the bog."
*Louis Hyman, Cornell University*
"Steinberg brings to the center of New York's history what nowadays
we mostly see only at its edges: the sea breezes and river
currents, the creatures that swarm under and the ships that sail
over the harbor's waters - waters on which the city's inhabitants
have advanced with waste and fill for centuries. Even the trim
outlines of Manhattan island represent the boundaries of aggressive
settlement, as human New Yorkers, like successful Canutes, have
pushed back the tides. Steinberg's story shows how literally the
city is the product of ambition and invention, its very shorelines
the result of commercial desires. Lively, deeply researched, and
well told, a pleasure to read and cogitate upon."
*Eric Rauchway, University of California, Davis*
"Ted Steinberg has written a historical masterpiece-- a remarkably
original and superbly crafted book about the relentless making and
unmaking of the landscape of America’s greatest, most protean city.
Gotham Unbound will enlighten anyone who cares about the past and
future of New York."
*Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a
Nation and editor, Dissent*
"The story of how the wild and woodsy Isle of Manhatta in 1609
became the hyperdense city of today. In the centuries-long war
between New York and nature, nature lost virtually every battle—but
then suddenly, in 2012, Hurricane Sandy exposed the dangers of
denial. Ted Steinberg has written a magnificent book that
transforms our understanding not just of New York City but of the
future that faces all of us."
*Jon Wiener, Univ. of Calif., Irvine*
"Gotham Unbound is much more than a brilliant book about a great
city. I am awed by Ted Steinberg’s ability to make so sprawling a
story into a powerful parable about the challenge – and the
ultimate folly – of aspiring to limitless growth."
*Adam Rome, author of The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In
Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation*
“Like each of his earlier books, Steinberg's Gotham Unbound is a
revelation: in this case of the water world that New York once was
and thanks to global warming may yet become again."
*Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los
Angeles*
“What happens when one of America’s great environmental historians
studies one of America’s great cities? The result, revealed in the
pages of Gotham Unbound, bursts with as many fascinating characters
and unforgettable stories as Manhattan itself."
*Karl Jacoby, author of Crimes Against Nature*
"The great American city now has a fresh, insightful history that
will open readers’ eyes to the ongoing role of nature in an
evolving metropolis. It’s a grand account, epic in scope and full
of amazing revelations. Give this book to anyone who cares about
environmental and urban studies and keep a copy for yourself."
*Clyde A. Milner, author of As Big As the West: The Pioneer Life of
Granville Stuart*
"Describing an island estuary that became one of the world’s most
densely populated cities, this fascinating, encyclopedic history
views three centuries of continuous transformation of greater New
York City through an ecological lens."
*Publishers Weekly (starred)*
"Richly researched and illustrated—a wholly edifying account."
*Kirkus (starred)*
"Steinberg's fascinating and cautionary unnatural history [is] a
staggering epic of human will, might, and folly that affirms a
crucial truth, “the control of nature is an illusion.”
*Booklist (starred)*
“[W]eighty and wonderful… Resting on a sturdy foundation of
research and imagination, Steinberg's volume begins with Henry
Hudson's arrival aboard the Half Moon in 1609 and ends with another
transformative event – Hurricane Sandy in 2012.”
*The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)*
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