Podcasts about modern new york

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoJeff Colburn, General Manager of Silver Mountain, IdahoRecorded onFebruary 12, 2025About Silver MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: CMR Lands, which also owns 49 Degrees North, WashingtonLocated in: Kellogg, IdahoYear founded: 1968 as Jackass ski area, later known as Silverhorn, operated intermittently in the 1980s before its transformation into Silver in 1990Pass affiliations:* Indy Pass – 2 days, select blackouts* Indy+ Pass – 2 days, no blackouts* Powder Alliance – 3 days, select blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Lookout Pass (:26)Base elevation: 4,100 feet (lowest chairlift); 2,300 feet (gondola)Summit elevation: 6,297 feetVertical drop: 2,200 feetSkiable acres: 1,600+Average annual snowfall: 340 inchesTrail count: 80Lift count: 7 (1 eight-passenger gondola, 1 fixed-grip quad, 2 triples, 2 doubles – view Lift Blog's inventory of Silver Mountain's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himAfter moving to Manhattan in 2002, I would often pine for an extinct version of New York City: docks thrust into the Hudson, masted ships, ornate brickwork factories, carriages, open windows, kids loose in the streets, summer evening crowds on stoops and patios. Modern New York, riotous as it is for an American city, felt staid and sterile beside the island's explosively peopled black-and-white past.Over time, I've developed a different view: New York City is a triumph of post-industrial reinvention, able to shed and quickly replace obsolete industries with those that would lead the future. And my idealized New York, I came to realize, was itself a snapshot of one lost New York, but not the only lost New York, just my romanticized etching of a city that has been in a constant state of reinvention for 400 years.It's through this same lens that we can view Silver Mountain. For more than a century, Kellogg was home to silver mines that employed thousands. When the Bunker Hill Mine closed in 1981, it took the town's soul with it. The city became a symbol of industrial decline, of an America losing its rough-and-ragged hammer-bang grit.And for a while, Kellogg was a denuded and dusty crater pockmarking the glory-green of Idaho's panhandle. The population collapsed. Suicide rates, Colburn tells us on the podcast, were high.But within a decade, town officials peered toward the skeleton of Jackass ski area, with its intact centerpole Riblet double, and said, “maybe that's the thing.” With help from Von Roll, they erected three chairlifts on the mountain and taxed themselves $2 million to string a three-mile-long gondola from town to mountain, opening the ski area to the masses by bypassing the serpentine seven-mile-long access road. (Gosh, can you think of anyplace else where such a contraption would work?)Silver rose above while the Environmental Protection Agency got to work below, cleaning up what had been designated a massive Superfund site. Today, Kellogg, led by Silver, is a functional, modern place, a post-industrial success story demonstrating how recreation can anchor an economy and a community. The service sector lacks the fiery valor of industry. Bouncing through snow, gifted from above, for fun, does not resonate with America's self-image like the gutsy miner pulling metal from the earth to feed his family. Town founder/mining legend Noah Kellogg and his jackass companion remain heroic local figures. But across rural America, ski areas have stepped quietly into the vacuum left by vacated factories and mines, where they become a source of community identity and a stabilizing agent where no other industry makes sense.What we talked aboutSki Idaho; what it will take to transform Idaho into a ski destination; the importance of Grand Targhee to Idaho; old-time PNW skiing; Schweitzer as bellwether for Idaho ski area development; Kellogg, Idaho's mining history, Superfund cleanup, and renaissance as a resort town; Jackass ski area and its rebirth as Silver Mountain; the easiest big mountain access in America; taking a gondola to the ski area; the Jackass Snack Shack; an affordable mountain town?; Silver's destination potential; 49 Degrees North; these obscenely, stupidly low lift ticket prices:Potential lift upgrades, including Chair 4; snowmaking potential; baselodge expansion; Indy Pass; and the Powder Alliance.What I got wrongI mentioned that Telluride's Mountain Village Gondola replacement would cost $50 million. The actual estimates appear to be $60 million. The two stages of that gondola total 10,145 feet, more than a mile shorter than Silver's astonishing 16,350 feet (3.1 miles).Why now was a good time for this interviewIn the ‘90s, before the advent of the commercial internet, I learned about skiing from magazines. They mostly wrote about the American West and their fabulous, over-hill-and-dale ski complexes: Vail and Sun Valley and Telluride and the like. But these publications also exposed the backwaters where you could mainline pow and avoid liftlines, and do it all for less than the price of a bologna sandwich. It was in Skiing's October 1994 Favorite Resorts issue that I learned about this little slice of magnificence:Snow, snow, snow, steep, steep, steep, cheap, cheap, cheap, and a feeling you've gone back to a special time and place when life, and skiing, was uncomplicated – those are the things that make [NAME REDACTED] one of our favorite resorts. It's the ultimate pure skiing experience. This was another surprise choice, even to those who named [REDACTED] to their lists. We knew people liked [REDACTED], but we weren't prepared for how many, or how create their affections were. This is the one area that broke the “Great Skiing + Great Base Area + Amenities = Favorite Resort” equation. [REDACTED] has minimal base development, no shopping, no nightlife, no fancy hotels or eateries, and yet here it is on our list, a tribute to the fact that in the end, really great skiing matters more than any other single resort feature.OK, well this sounds amazing. Tell me more……[REDACTED] has one of the cheapest lift tickets around.…One of those rare places that hasn't been packaged, streamlined, suburbanized. There's also that delicious atmosphere of absolute remoteness from the everyday world.…The ski area for traditionalists, ascetics, and cheapskates. The lifts are slow and creaky, the accommodations are spartan, but the lift tickets are the best deal in skiing.This super-secret, cheaper-than-Tic-Tacs, Humble Bro ski center tucked hidden from any sign of civilization, the Great Skiing Bomb Shelter of 1994, is…Alta.Yes, that Alta.The Alta with four high-speed lifts.The Alta with $199 peak-day walk-up lift tickets.The Alta that headlines the Ikon Pass and Mountain Collective.The Alta with an address at the top of America's most over-burdened access road.Alta is my favorite ski area. There is nothing else like it anywhere (well, except directly next door). And a lot remains unchanged since 1994: there still isn't much to do other than ski, the lodges are still “spartan,” it is still “steep” and “deep.” But Alta blew past “cheap” a long time ago, and it feels about as embedded in the wilderness as an exit ramp Chuck E. Cheese. Sure, the viewshed is mostly intact, but accessing the ski area requires a slow-motion up-canyon tiptoe that better resembles a civilization-level evacuation than anything we would label “remote.” Alta is still Narnia, but the Alta described above no longer exists.Well, no s**t? Aren't we talking about Idaho here? Yes, but no one else is. And that's what I'm getting at: the Alta of 2025, the place where everything is cheap and fluffy and empty, is Idaho. Hide behind your dumb potato jokes all you want, but you can't argue with this lineup:“Ummm, Grand Targhee is in Wyoming, D*****s.”Thank you, Geography Bro, but the only way to access GT is through Idaho, and the mountain has been a member of Ski Idaho for centuries because of it.Also: Lost Trail and Lookout Pass both straddle the Montana-Idaho border.Anyway, check that roster, those annual snowfall totals. Then look at how difficult these ski areas are to access. The answer, mostly, is “Not Very.” You couldn't make Silver Mountain easier to get to unless you moved it to JFK airport: exit the interstate, drive seven feet, park, board the gondola.Finally, let's compare that group of 15 Idaho ski areas to the 15 public, aerial-lift-served ski areas in Utah. Even when you include Targhee and all of Lost Trail and Lookout, Utah offers 32 percent more skiable terrain than Idaho:But Utah tallies three times more annual skier visits than Idaho:No, Silver Mountain is not Alta, and Brundage is not Snowbird. But Silver and Brundage don't get skied out in under 45 seconds on a powder day. And other than faster lifts and more skiers, there's not much separating the average Utah ski resort from the average Idaho ski resort.That won't be true forever. People are dumb in the moment, but smart in slow-motion. We are already seeing meaningful numbers of East Coast ski families reorient their ski trips east, across the Atlantic (one New York-based reader explained to me today how they flew their family to Norway for skiing over President's weekend because it was cheaper than Vermont). Soon enough, Planet California and everyone else is going to tire of the expense and chaos of Colorado and Utah, and they'll Insta-sleuth their way to this powdery Extra-Rockies that everyone forgot about. No reason to wait for all that.Why you should ski Silver MountainI have little to add outside of what I wrote above: go to Silver because it's big and cheap and awesome. So I'll add this pinpoint description from Skibum.net:It's hard to find something negative about Silver Mountain; the only real drawback is that you probably live nowhere near it. On the other hand, if you live within striking distance, you already know that this is easily the best kept ski secret in Idaho and possibly the entire western hemisphere. If not, you just have to convince the family somehow that Kellogg Idaho — not Vail, not Tahoe, not Cottonwood Canyon — is the place you ought to head for your next ski trip. Try it, and you'll see why it's such a well-kept secret. All-around fantastic skiing, terrific powder, virtually no liftlines, reasonable pricing. Layout is kind of quirky; almost like an upside-down mountain due to gondola ride to lodge…interesting place. Emphasis on expert skiing but all abilities have plenty of terrain. Experts will find a ton of glades … One of the country's great underrated ski areas.Some of you will just never bother traveling for a mountain that lacks high-speed lifts. I understand, but I think that's a mistake. Slow lifts don't matter when there are no liftlines. And as Skiing wrote about Alta in 1994, “Really great skiing matters more than any other single resort feature.”Podcast NotesOn Schweitzer's transformationIf we were to fast-forward 30 years, I think we would find that most large Idaho ski areas will have undergone a renaissance of the sort that Schweitzer, Idaho did over the previous 30 years. Check the place out in 1988, a big but backwoods ski area covered in double chairs:Compare that to Schweitzer today: four high-speed quads, a sixer, and two triples that are only fixed-grip because the GM doesn't like exposed high-elevation detaches.On Silver's legacy ski areasSilver was originally known as Jackass, then Silverhorn. That original chairlift, installed in 1967, stands today as Chair 4:On the Jackass Snack ShackThis mid-mountain building, just off Chair 4, is actually a portable structure moved north from Tamarack:On 49 Degrees NorthCMR Lands also owns 49 Degrees North, an outstanding ski area two-and-a-half hours west and roughly equidistant from Spokane as Silver is (though in opposite directions). In 2021, the mountain demolished a top-to-bottom, 1972 SLI double for a brand-new, 1,851-vertical-foot high-speed quad, from which you can access most of the resort's 2,325 acres.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

It has become cliche to say that the roots of modern New York City can be found in the 1970s. But in his book, "Manhattan Phoenix: The Great Fire of 1835 and the Emergence of Modern New York," Daniel Levy argues that the leveling of 700 buildings in lower Manhattan is truly the key moment. The fire devastated lower Manhattan, left thousands homeless or out of work and exposed several ways New York was being held back from becoming great. From improvements in firefighting to a public water system, Levy argues that the time period before the Civil War should be remembered for how New Yorkers banded together to build their city into one that would become America's signature metropolis. We also discussed how fires and devastation have often set New Yorkers on the path to renewal, Levy's writing career, and how research can be a painstaking but worthwhile process.Information on his book from Oxford University Press can be found hereSupport our show at https://patreon.com/axelbankhistory **A portion of every contribution is given to a charity for children's literacy**"Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at https://twitter.com/axelbankhistoryhttps://instagram.com/axelbankhistoryhttps://facebook.com/axelbankhistory

For the final installment of our series, join us for the meteoric fall of Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall. And like most falls from public grace, his was full of backstabbing and intrigue, making it all the more spectacularly dramatic!Sources:Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006. Golway, Terry. Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Join us for part 2 where we learn how a small group of men, led by Boss Tweed, came up with a scheme to rob the New York City treasury blind, and still appear legal.Sources:Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006. Golway, Terry. Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Corruption, greed, strong arm politics, war, and the forging of modern day New York City, Boss Tweed was at the center of it all, pulling the strings from the well oiled political machine, Tammany Hall. Join us for one of the man whose name and likeness has come to be synonymous with corrupt city politics.Sources:Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006. Golway, Terry. Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Gail Fenske, author of "The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York," on the architectural landmark in Tribeca.

Arguably the most corrupt politician in American history, William "Boss" Tweed bilked New York City for millions of dollars in the 1860s, before finally suffering a spectacular downfall.  Attorney and historian Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of "BOSS TWEED: The Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York" talk about this notorious and often misunderstood giant in American political history.  Kenneth Ackerman's website is www.kennethackerman.com Support Most Notorious at www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fried Chicken Rezept glasiert mit Honig lecker eingelegt in Buttermilch, damit holt ihr Euch den Flair von "The Bar Room" im MoMa Museum of Modern Art in New York nach Hause. Das luxuriöse Alternativprogramm zu KFC Hähnchen. Ihr versteht noch nicht so recht, was ich damit meine?! Ich muss etwas ausholen: In Instagram habe ich kürzlich ein Bild gesehen, auf dem lecker knusprige frittierte Hähnchenschenkel und Champagner zu sehen waren. Ja, ihr habt richtig gehört: auf den ersten Blick simples Fried Chicken, halt ein einfaches Hähnchen oder Hühnchen, aber stop! Nicht einfach frittiertes Hähnchen oder Hühnchen und schon garnicht nur einfach! Nein, mit einem sehr hochpreisigen Champagner an seiner Seite. Ich dachte mir: wie dekadent das doch ist, dieses frittiertes Hähnchen oder Hühnchen muss ich haben. "The Bar Room" gehört zum mit zwei Michelinsternen ausgezeichneten Restaurant "The Modern" in der MoMa in New York. Es ist eine Bar, in der edle Getränke und kleinere Speisen angeboten werden, jedoch angehaucht vom Flair des Sternerestaurants. Da Corona Reisen vor allem mit dem Fieger erschwert, hole ich mir gerne Flair durch kulinarische Ideen und Erlebnisse nach Hause. Mich reizen dabei vor allem Rezepte abseits des 0-8-15 Durchschitts, die es ja zu Hauf in sozialen Medien und Blogs gibt. So habe ich begonnen zu experimentieren, um diese Schenkel wie im "The Bar Room" NY hinzubekommen, zumindest wie auf dem Bild, das ich auf Instagram gesehen habe. Grundentscheidungen die ich aus dem Bild ableiten konnte waren beim Rezept: 1) Fleisch eingelegt in Buttermilch Marinade, 2) die Panade des Chicken pikant gewürzt (Kreuzkümmel, Cayenne, süsser Paprika), 3) besondere Textur des Chicken nach dem Frittieren mit groben getrockneten Paprikaflocken in der Panade. In "The Bar Room" werden die frittierten Hähnchenschenkel als "Buckets and Bubbles" mit Pommes Frites und Champagner angeboten. Das könnt ihr zu Hause auch haben. Den edlen Krug Champagner sollte man sich durchaus einmal leisten. Es geht aber auch ein anderer ... ;-). Ich habe Euch wie es sich für dieses Experiment gehört ein Video gedreht und zwar in Michelinflair ganz in meiner Nähe: bei meinem Freund, dem Nürnberger Sternekoch Fabian Denninger in seinen Entenstuben. Die in diesem Fall "Buckets OHNE Bubbles" gabs dann für sein Team beim Personalessen, bevor der abendliche Service in den Entenstuben losgeht. Und allen hat es geschmeckt :-). Ein Adelsschlag und hat mich in der Ableitung des Rezepts aus dem Instagram Bild von The Modern bestätigt. Bei mir zu Hause hatte ich dann die Hähnchenschenkel doch mit Champagner. MoMa Flair @Home eben. Ihr könnt natürlich auch einen kühlen Wein dazu geniessen. Das genaue Rezept erkläre ich Euch einfach und schnell zum Nachkochen im Video und Podcast. Und hier wie immer die Zutaten Fried Chicken "Buckets and Bubbles" im Detail: (für 4 Personen) 12 Hähnchenunterkeulen oder 8 Hähnchenschenkel Für die Marinade: 720 ml Buttermilch 2 EL Salz 3 EL frisch gemahlener schwarzer Pfeffer aus der Mühle 2 EL Zwiebelpulver 2 EL Knoblauchpulver 3 EL süsses Paprikapulver 2 EL gemörserter Kreuzkümmel 2 EL Oregano getrocknet 2 TL Cayennepfeffer 3 EL grobe getrocknete Paprikaflocken (türkischer Lebensmittelladen) Zum Frittieren: Mehl Sonnenblumenöl Für das Finish: Honig etwas erwärmt

In this episode, host and B'nai B'rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin sits down with guest Ken Ackerman, an attorney and writer based in Washington, D.C. Ken’s published books include Boss Tweed: The Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York and Ken’s most recent one, Trotsky in New York, 1917, A Radical on the Eve of Revolution. Ken has authored a feature story titled “How an Immigrant Saloon of 1840s New York Gave Birth to B’nai B’rith” for B'nai B'rith Magazine's winter 2018 magazine issue. The piece is a deeply researched and detailed exploration of B’nai B’rith’s founding in New York during the mid-19th century. Ken describes in detail what life was like for the Jews who founded B'nai B'rith during that time.

In this episode Matt Crawford speaks with author Mason B. Williams about his book City of Ambition: FDR, LaGuardia, and the Making of Modern New York. This book is a fantastic deep dive into the policies that helped form the famous infrastructure of New York. The backdrop of this story is the personal relationship between LaGuardia, a Republican and FDR, a Democrat. In the true meaning of bipartisanship these two men brought their parties together for the good of the country and its people. With lessons that could be used today, while a fantastic history book this could be used as a blueprint to govern today!

At a time when retail sales are dominated by online behemoths like Amazon Inc. and big chain stores, independent brick-and-mortar shops are under growing pressure. Imad Khachan defies the odds to run the Chess Forum in New York's Greenwich Village. Here, chess fans can buy game sets or compete against each other for a small fee. It's an old-fashioned business model under assault by the digital world on two fronts as more chess players opt to compete online. We talk with Khachan about the challenges of running his dark horse-chess enterprise.

The fourth episode of American History Too! delves into the United States’ deadliest conflict to date – The American Civil War.  To help us with this mammoth task we bring on board University of Edinburgh lecturer, Dr David Silkenat.  David teaches a course here at Edinburgh on the American Civil War and, among his various publications, he has published a well-received, award-winning book entitled Moments of Despair: Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina.  David guides us through how the Civil War legacy’s remains a contentious bone in the American South.  We then turn our attentions North and discuss the role of Copperheads (opponents of the war) in fomenting dissension – both rhetorical and violent – against the both the conflict and Abraham Lincoln.  In particular, David – a native New Yorker – offers us his take on the New York Draft Riots of July 1863 that ended with roughly 120 dead and 2,000 wounded in the nation’s biggest metropolis. In addition, we hear how the Bush Administration used Abraham Lincoln as a justification for Guantanamo Bay, Mark tells the story of the first African American scientist who now has a coffee shop named after him in Glasgow, and Malcolm lets us know from which historical event the San Francisco 49ers took their name.  All this and much more this week on American History Too! Thanks again for listening and as always any feedback is always welcome.  Find us at @ahtoopodcast, @contestedground and @markmclay1985 Also, please check out David’s podcast at @AHuntucked Cheers, Mark & Malcolm   Reading List: -          Jennifer Weber, Copperheads: the rise and fall of Lincoln’s opponents in the North (New York:  Oxford University Press, 2006) -          Joan E. Cashin (ed), The war was you and me : civilians in the American Civil War (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2002) -          Kenneth D. Ackerman, Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul of Modern New York (2005) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Today, many New Yorkers take the FDR to get to La Guardia,” Mason B. Williams jokes in the opening line of his new book City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York (W.W. Norton, 2013) . And, depending on where they start, they pass any number of vital, iconic features in Gotham’s landscape that were built thanks to both men: Carl Schurz Park, the Triborough Bridge, Randall Island’s Stadium, the Astoria Pool, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, William Cullen Bryant High School, the Queensbridge Houses, etc. These public works are the physical legacy of the New Deal, and the legendary partnership between the city’s famous mayor, Fiorella La Guardia, and the state’s former Governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the latter’s presidency. That heritage stands everywhere around us, not just in New York but all over the country. Yet, as Williams notes, the history of this paradoxically productive era in America’s past (a stark contrast to politics in the Great Recession) has been “obscured in turns by ideology and neglect.” City of Ambition tells that story with sophistication and verve. It is difficult for any scholar, particularly a junior one, to say something interesting about the New Deal, the Big Bang in modern American political history. But Williams uses this quasi dual-biographical approach to make a point we sometimes forget: that federalism, so often the Achilles heel of reform in the United States, actually lay at the heart of this seminal moment. Washington lacked the operational capacity to administer large-scale programs, and so relied heavily upon municipal governments. Far from a zero-sum game, the growth of federal power “enabled local action.” Heavily researched, ambitiously broad, and finely written, Williams’s book explores a number of other local and national themes, as well. Read and enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Today, many New Yorkers take the FDR to get to La Guardia,” Mason B. Williams jokes in the opening line of his new book City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York (W.W. Norton, 2013) . And, depending on where they start, they pass any number of vital, iconic features in Gotham’s landscape that were built thanks to both men: Carl Schurz Park, the Triborough Bridge, Randall Island’s Stadium, the Astoria Pool, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, William Cullen Bryant High School, the Queensbridge Houses, etc. These public works are the physical legacy of the New Deal, and the legendary partnership between the city’s famous mayor, Fiorella La Guardia, and the state’s former Governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the latter’s presidency. That heritage stands everywhere around us, not just in New York but all over the country. Yet, as Williams notes, the history of this paradoxically productive era in America’s past (a stark contrast to politics in the Great Recession) has been “obscured in turns by ideology and neglect.” City of Ambition tells that story with sophistication and verve. It is difficult for any scholar, particularly a junior one, to say something interesting about the New Deal, the Big Bang in modern American political history. But Williams uses this quasi dual-biographical approach to make a point we sometimes forget: that federalism, so often the Achilles heel of reform in the United States, actually lay at the heart of this seminal moment. Washington lacked the operational capacity to administer large-scale programs, and so relied heavily upon municipal governments. Far from a zero-sum game, the growth of federal power “enabled local action.” Heavily researched, ambitiously broad, and finely written, Williams’s book explores a number of other local and national themes, as well. Read and enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Today, many New Yorkers take the FDR to get to La Guardia,” Mason B. Williams jokes in the opening line of his new book City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York (W.W. Norton, 2013) . And, depending on where they start, they pass any number of vital, iconic features in Gotham’s landscape that were built thanks to both men: Carl Schurz Park, the Triborough Bridge, Randall Island’s Stadium, the Astoria Pool, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, William Cullen Bryant High School, the Queensbridge Houses, etc. These public works are the physical legacy of the New Deal, and the legendary partnership between the city’s famous mayor, Fiorella La Guardia, and the state’s former Governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the latter’s presidency. That heritage stands everywhere around us, not just in New York but all over the country. Yet, as Williams notes, the history of this paradoxically productive era in America’s past (a stark contrast to politics in the Great Recession) has been “obscured in turns by ideology and neglect.” City of Ambition tells that story with sophistication and verve. It is difficult for any scholar, particularly a junior one, to say something interesting about the New Deal, the Big Bang in modern American political history. But Williams uses this quasi dual-biographical approach to make a point we sometimes forget: that federalism, so often the Achilles heel of reform in the United States, actually lay at the heart of this seminal moment. Washington lacked the operational capacity to administer large-scale programs, and so relied heavily upon municipal governments. Far from a zero-sum game, the growth of federal power “enabled local action.” Heavily researched, ambitiously broad, and finely written, Williams’s book explores a number of other local and national themes, as well. Read and enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Doug Muzzio is joined by Greg David, author of "Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City". A columnist for "Crain's New York Business," David is also dir. of the Business & Econ. Reporting Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

"Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties" brings to life the nationwide Palmer raids of 1919-20 and the coming of age of the seminal FBI director, including his four-year career (1913-17) at the Library of Congress. Speaker Biography: Kenneth Ackerman is a writer and attorney in Washington, and a veteran of senior positions in Congress, the executive branch, financial regulation and private law. His previous books are "Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York," "Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield" and "The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould and Black Friday, 1869." For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5385.