Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919

by Mike Wallace,
Reviews in American History, September 1, 2018

Sequels are rarely as good as, and even more infrequently better than, the original. There are, however, some notable exceptions. Among movies, Godfather II sits on top of a very short list of critically acclaimed second acts. In American history, Perry Miller’s landmark volume in intellectual history, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953) followed his immensely influential The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939). David Brion Davis’s masterful The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (1975) was preceded by the brilliant The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1966). And, for good measure, Miller and Davis also produced memorable third volumes.