You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890's to World War II

by Jeff Kisseloff

Jeff Kisseloff brings together 137 New Yorkers who witnessed daily life in Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II.

Dividing the city into ten neighborhoods and devoting a chapter and about a dozen voices to each, Kisseloff offers a brief historical introduction, then lets the eyewitnesses speak for themselves. We hear a survivor's account of the harrowing Triangle Shirtwaist fire as well as tales of the sweatshops, the settlement houses, and the immigrants from around the world who poured into the Lower East Side at the turn of the century. There are vignettes of John Reed, Louise Bryant, Eugene O'Neill, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We read of the bloody beginnings of the seamen's union and, down the street from the docks, visit with Thomas Wolfe and Edgar Lee Masters in the Hotel Chelsea. In Harlem, the Savoy and the Cotton Club were in their heyday, as were Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, and Adam Clayton Powell. Throughout the book, Kisseloff engages us in a unique conversation between an all-but-bygone time and our own.

Genres: History, New York, Nonfiction, Oral History, Memoir

622 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1989

Reviews

[Loretta Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have EVER lived in Manhattan or if you love NY history, this is a must. Really fast read, full of local color. Each chapter would make an amazing walking tour--see what is still there.

[Caroline]

I only read the Lower East Side & Upper East Side sections for research but definitely want to come back to this sometime in the future and read more - super interesting to hear first hand accounts of these time periods in NYC.

[David Kaufman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great oral history of a lost New York.

[LecturerRich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of it I knew from my dad wo was born in Harlem in 1917 when it was white and poor.

[Jgilon41 · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book on NYC history.

[Barry Joseph]

This was great research for the egg cream section of my book, especially the store of the Austers.