New York City

The skyscrapers and neon nightlife, together with the inner-city ghettos, symbolize the excitements and tribulations of the contemporary urban living of New York. But, this city's powerful presence is also built upon a dramatic history. Settled by Dutch traders, seized at gunpoint by an English fleet, New York's development into a mega-city is as astounding as any in American history. Eric Homberger explores the contribution New York has made to American history and culture. Birthplace to Herman Melville, Henry James and Joseph Heller, and adopted home of many other playwrights, artists and radicals, New York has been relentless in overturning cultural conventions. New York is: a city of power - Wall Street and the heart of US capitalism, the UN and global politics; a city of ambition - Ellis Island and the eternal migrant dream; a city of drama, art and music - Broadway, Tin Pan alley, museums, orchestras, and popular music; and a city of writers and visionaries - emigre intellectuals, novelists and poets, and chroniclers of urban life and voices of the dispossessed.