This alternative guidebook for one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations explores all five boroughs to reveal a people’s New York City.

The sites and stories of A People’s Guide to New York City shift our perception of what defines New York, placing the passion, determination, defeats, and victories of its people at the core. Delving into the histories of New York's five boroughs, you will encounter enslaved Africans in revolt, women marching for equality, workers on strike, musicians and performers claiming streets for their art, and neighbors organizing against landfills and industrial toxins and in support of affordable housing and public schools. The streetscapes that emerge from these groups' struggles bear the traces, and this book shows you where to look to find them.

New York City is a preeminent global city, serving as the headquarters for hundreds of multinational firms and a world-renowned cultural hub for fashion, art, and music. It is among the most multicultural cities in the world and also one of the most segregated cities in the United States. The people that make this global city function—immigrants, people of color, and the working classes—reside largely in the so-called outer boroughs, outside the corporations, neon, and skyscrapers of Manhattan. A People’s Guide to New York City expands the scope and scale of traditional guidebooks, providing an equitable exploration of the diverse communities throughout the city. Through the stories of over 150 sites across the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island as well as thematic tours and contemporary and archival photographs, a people’s New York emerges, one in which collective struggles for justice and freedom have shaped the very landscape of the city.

About the Author

Carolina Bank Muñoz is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Penny Lewis is Professor of Labor Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

Emily Tumpson Molina is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

Reviews

"As bright as the city of lights shines, the everyday stories and landscapes that are the basis of its grandeur are often missed by pomp and lore. This volume takes you to New York City in its most multiple and mundane glory. To know all of New York City is to venture to learn the stories of every building, every corner, every street, every brick—and this volume takes us there."—Zaire Dinzey-Flores, Associate Professor of Sociology and Latino and Caribbean Studies, Rutgers University

"One can't understand New York City without understanding how protest and contention have made this city. This is more than just a fine guidebook. If you love the city as I do, reading the book will fill you with the warm pleasure and nostalgia that comes from attachment to place, to history, and to kin. So read it!"—Frances Fox Piven, author of Regulating the Poor and Poor People's Movements

"The multiracial and multiethnic community struggles foregrounded by A People's Guide to New York City provide organizers and activists with context and perspectives to lift and support grassroots organizing for decades to come."—Javier Valdés, former Codirector of Make the Road New York

"Excellent! This guidebook acquaints walkers in the city with the historical struggles that over centuries have shaped and reshaped Gotham. Recounting key stories of political, economic, and cultural conflict, it brings its narrative down to current social justice campaigns. Well-researched, well-written, and well-organized, it is, in my opinion, the best tour guide of New York."—Mike Wallace, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, and founder of the Gotham Center for New York City History

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews