The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York

Historian and author Tyler Anbinder's new book, "City of Dreams," provides a vivid sense of what New York looked like, sounded like, smelled like, and felt like over the centuries of its development and maturation into the city we know today.

About the book:

With more than three million foreign-born residents today, New York has been America's defining port of entry for nearly four centuries, a magnet for transplants from all over the globe. These migrants have brought their hundreds of languages and distinct cultures to the city, and from there to the entire country. More immigrants have come to New York than all other entry points combined.

"City of Dreams" is peopled with memorable characters both beloved and unfamiliar, whose lives unfold in rich detail: the young man from the Caribbean who passed through New York on his way to becoming a Founding Father; the ten-year-old Angelo Siciliano, from Calabria, who transformed into Charles Atlas, bodybuilder; Dominican-born Oscar de la Renta, whose couture designs have dressed first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama.

About the Author:

Tyler Anbinder is a specialist in nineteenth-century American politics and the history of immigration and ethnicity in American life. His book "Five Points" traced the history of nineteenth-century America's most infamous immigrant slum, focusing in particular on tenement life, inter-ethnic relations, and ethnic politics, and Andbinder served as a historical consultant to Martin Scorsese for the making of "The Gangs of New York." He is a professor of history at Columbian College of Arts& Science at George Washington University.

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