On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square

Described as “a continuous carnival” and “the crossroads of the world,” Times Square is a singular phenomenon: the spot where imagination and veracity intersect. To esteemed scholar and author Marshall Berman, it is also the flashing, teeming, and strangely beautiful nexus of his life. In this remarkable book, Berman takes us on a thrilling illustrated tour of Times Square, revealing a landscape both mythic and real. On the Town is a unique look through the lens of the ideas and works of art that inspired–or were inspired by–this landmarks allure.

Times Square pulses with life, drawing countless millions who long to be surrounded by too many in the midst of too much. Beyond the immense crowds, the intoxicating lights, the imposing architecture, and even the recent incursion of corporate headquarters that limn the Squares present boundaries, there is an indefatigable humanity (and undeniable sexual tension) that, for more than a century, has nourished creative expression.

Interleafing his own recollections with astute social commentary, Berman reveals how movies, graphic arts, literature, popular music, television, and, of course, the Broadway theater have reflected Times Squares voluminous light to illuminate a vast spectrum of themes and vignettes. Berman shows us Times Square as it is seen in Alfred Eisenstadts iconic photography, the movies of Busby Berkeley, John Schlesinger, and Martin Scorsese, and the stage choreography of Jerome Robbins.

Conversely, we see how Times Squares distinctive aura finds its source in a stunningly diverse list of performers, writers, and impresarios, including Theodore Dreiser, Florenz Ziegfeld, Ethel Merman, Al Jolson, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Berman also celebrates the unsung heroes of Times Square–the artists, engineers, and hucksters behind the Squares landmark signs that, throughout the decades, re-created raging waterfalls, blew smoke rings, bathed onlookers in the Squares eerily welcoming light, and projected the image of what Americans want to be against a surface of who we really are.

Part love letter, part revelatory semiotic exposition of a place known to all, On the Town is a nonstop excursion to the heart of American civilization, written by one of our keenest, most entertaining cultural observers.

"Noted critic Berman writes, 'I'm pretty suspicious of the discourse of nostalgia, including my own.' And yet this uneven book is saturated with a nostalgic glow for times gone by, a wistfulness for the radicalism of the Popular Front of the 1930s, while disparaging the ideological trends that grew out of those earlier movements. This is nowhere more clear than in a misguided diatribe against a 1975 essay by the feminist critic Laura Mulvey. Despite his condescending and contradictory stance elevating the display of women but not their active participation in the creation of the culture of Times Square, Berman ends up proving Mulvey's point about women as objects of the male gaze rather than refuting it. Berman's goal is to mirror the multitudinous city about which he writes, so the study overflows with characters, stories and events, but that proves to be its weakness. There is too much to sustain a coherent argument, from novels to movies to Broadway musicals. Although Berman (All That Is Solid Melts into Air) provides some fine interpretations of individual works, he is strongest when he sticks closest to the fascinating history of Times Square itself. B&w photos. (On sale Feb. 7)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

From the acclaimed writer and cultural critic comes a unique look at New York City and Times Square through the lens of the works of art they inspired. Photos.

Marshall Berman is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at City College of New York and CCNY Graduate Center, where he teaches political theory and urban studies. He writes frequently for The Nation and The Village Voice, and serves on the editorial board of Dissent. He is the author of The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society and All That Is Sold Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity.