New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham

“[N]o other major American city has so repeatedly faced the risks and realities of wartime turmoil and attack as has New York,” writes Jaffe, historian and historical curator. He uses 9/11 as a focal point for reflecting on the city’s long and long-neglected past as a military site. The city’s struggles, and its frequent failure to develop effective defenses, began before Peter Stuyvesant and continued after the administration of Rudolph Giuliani. Pirates, Confederates, and terrorists have held the spotlight. Jaffe tells the story in the context of paradoxes. New York has been a stronghold, a warehouse, and a bank in the service of war yet has also proven consistently vulnerable to attack—a consequence of its origins and development as a commercial center. Contradictory feelings of vulnerability and of immunity inform the city’s perspective on military matters. Jaffe utilized a spectrum of published sources, primary and secondary, in this well-presented, fast-paced narrative of the ways a polyglot, protean community has reacted, and continues to react, to the periodic challenge of ensuring domestic security while maintaining commitments to openness and inclusion. 34 b&w illus., 3 maps. Agent: Sam Stoloff, Frances Oldin Literary Agency. (Apr.)