The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York

by Ross Barkan

Governor Andrew Cuomo, scion of Mario Cuomo, is today as famous as his father, also a governor of New York state for three terms. Like Robert Moses, he is one of New York’s great and infamous power brokers. Though initially lavishly celebrated for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, not least by himself, it is now apparent that Cuomo’s management of the crisis was a juddering and fatal failure. Thousands died because, ignoring the advice of experts, he shut down too late and returned still sick patients to nursing homes. The crisis was intensified by his previous commitment to austerity, which saw the slashing of funding to hospitals.

A vital riposte to Cuomo’s recently published book about the pandemic, now increasingly derided as self-serving and deceitful, The Prince is a searing indictment of Cuomo’s handling of coronavirus and his time overall in the highest office of the state.

Genres: New York

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

https://www.facebook.com/RossBarkanNYC/

Ross Barkan is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York. His next novel, The Night Burns Bright, will be published in 2022.

An award-winning journalist and former candidate for office, he is a columnist for the Guardian and Jacobin, as well as a contributing writer to the Nation.

His journalism and essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, New York Magazine, GQ, the Village Voice, and the Columbia Journalism Review.

In both 2017 and 2019, he was the recipient of the New York Press Club’s award for distinguished newspaper commentary. He now teaches journalism at NYU and St. Joseph’s College. He also created a popular newsletter, Political Currents, on New York and national affairs.

Reviews

[Matt Filipski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great left-wing critique of Cuomo, showing how the governor, as someone beholden to corporate interests, betrayed the working class of New York through his opposition to tenants’ rights and through budget cuts to education and hospitals. The book also dives into the media’s fawning coverage of Cuomo’s handling of coronavirus, despite the facts that show how spectacularly he failed New Yorkers in this regard as well. A quick read, I read it in a day, but worthwhile.

[Peter Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrifying but gripping indictment of Andrew Cuomo's failed and corrupt response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York state.

[Joseph Niver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important read for any New Yorker who was a "Cuomosexual" during the pandemic. Barkan lays out how the vindictive, entitled bully who occupied the governor's mansion for a decade made New York so vulnerable to a pandemic, and how his dithering response, contrary of his media personality, cost tens of thousands of lives.

[Abdul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book but has some repetitions. Plenty of new things though.

[Deepika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who lived in New York State during the month of March 2020 needs to read this. In short, we were lied to.

This book outlines the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and pinpoints exactly what went wrong in New York: a lack of preparation, Cuomo's petty feuding and refusal to shut operations down, unaffordable rents that continue to make survival impossible for many, the list goes on. Barkan offers contrasting examples as well of what could have been: Washington's state preparation for remote work, SF's early shutdown, etc. But the media chose to glamorize Cuomo instead, because in the absence of presidential leadership, we were desperate for a media hero.

We saw our friends die and were told the state was handling it. We were sent to work without proper PPE and told that things were under control. We were told that this was the job.

We were lied to. Thank you, Ross Barkan for presenting the truth.

(One of the critiques I have of this book is that it didn't fully explore how Cuomo lagged on the census; this is going to cost the state for a decade).

[Jesse Meyerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone curious about New York State workings and the governor's (or *this* governor's) grip on its every machination. Essential counterbalance to the local and national media's hagiography of Cuomo, as he echoed the worst responses to lambasted GOP executives like Texas's Patrick, but was instead praised despite actually putting the economy before citizens' lives not merely talking about it. Barkan offers detailed wheres, whys, and hows that expressly put the city's and state's outsized death tolls on Cuomo and his egregious decisions, and his need to "win" against foes real and imagined, left and right.

[Jenya Cassidy]

Great book not only about Governor Cuomo's disastrous COVID response and his weird, temporary rise as a media sensation, but so much good information about the impact of austerity on New York and on our ability to respond to crisis. Really great writing - would love to see more books focused on state government. I recommend this to anyone wanting to understand the current, ongoing COVID crisis and how our response at the state and national level is falling far short of what it could be and what we will need for future pandemics and other types of crisis.

[Brian Tannenbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good retrospective of how the governor failed New York in its most desperate hour. There's just a little bit of editorial sloppiness including an entry in the footnotes that just reads as "Insert Text." Overall Ross is a good writer and an excellent reporter.

[Regina Mascia · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book........Cuomo and deBlasio being so incompetent.....thousands of lives could have been saved.

[Mike Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuomo is an asshole.