New York Rising collects archival material from the long history of New York City to show how the physical evolution of the city reflects its economic, political, and cultural evolution. The book highlights objects from the Durst Collection, which began in Seymour B. Durst’s home on East 48th Street, and which he called The Old York Library. Now the collection lives at Columbia University and has been published with a unique group of contributing scholars.
Read all of New York Rising and look closely at the images discussed in the text. Write a 4-5 page response paper to this book that considers the structure of the collection, the archival objects included, and the differing viewpoints of the contributing authors. How do these tell the history of NYC? What is revealed in the text, and how are the goals of the narrative achieved? What histories of the city are missing and why?