Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Thirty years ago
Low Life appeared to universal acclaim and secured Luc Sante's status as the author of that now-cult classic of alternative New York City history. Now he returns with another sidelong NYC history--here, the making of the upstate reservoir system that reliably supplies one of the world's greatest metropolises with its fresh water, and without which the city would almost certainly have faded into insignificance.
The Croton, the city's earliest upstate reservoir, was created in Westchester County in the late 1830s. But Sante's focus here is the sixty-year period from 1907 to 1967 when twenty-six villages and countless farms, forest lands, orchards, quarries, and more on the west side of the Hudson River were bought for a fraction of their value, demolished, and then submerged--some of them within living memory--to create the Catskills reservoirs. The regional ecosystem was profoundly altered, including in ways we will never be able fully to appreciate.
In addition to the reservoirs, whole networks of roads that are owned by the city and have their own traffic laws and speed limits give New York City power in the lives of the upstate locals, affecting their tax rates and limiting their access to the reservoir lands at will. The reservoir system has affected a political polarization between upstate and down, city and country, that was already well underway before the first shovel of soil was removed, and appears as a microcosm of the urban/rural polarity that continues to unbalance the nation as a whole. Dozens of historical photos that document the reservoir system's creation, nostalgic historical postcards from pre-reservoir times, historical and contemporary maps, and present-day photographs by renowned artist Tim help make this meticulously detailed book both an immersive history and a meditation on the significance of these willed-from-nature bodies of water to the city--past, present, and future.
Synopsis
By the author of Low Life, the now-classic history of NYC's outlaw underbelly--a meticulously researched, evocatively illustrated, profoundly meditative account of the city's upstate reservoirs
Without the upstate reservoir system that brings fresh water to New York City, the city would have faded into insignificance. But this engineering triumph had a cost: From 1907 to 1967, twenty-six upstate villages, farms, forests, and other natural areas were bought for a fraction of their value, demolished, then submerged to create the Catskills and Delaware watershed systems.
Compelled to understand "the air of permanent mourning" in their vicinity, Luc Sante marshals the same gifts that made Low Life a now-classic of NYC history: a meticulously detailed accounting of their creation, a trove of rarely seen visual history, and a master of literary nonfiction's sensibility for the essential paradox at the heart of this story: the triumph NYC's nineteen-reservoir system represents, and the tragedy of its creation.
Synopsis
Without the nineteen upstate reservoirs that supply its water, New York City as we know it would not exist today. From 1907 to 1967, a network of reservoirs and aqueducts was built across more than one million acres in upstate New York, including Greene, Delaware, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties. This feat of engineering served to meet New York City's ever-increasing need for water, sustaining its inhabitants and cementing it as a center of industry. West of the Hudson, it meant that twenty-six villages, with their farms, forest lands, orchards, and quarries, were bought for a fraction of their value, demolished, and submerged, profoundly altering ecosystems in ways we will never fully appreciate.
This paradox of victory and loss is at the heart of Nineteen Reservoirs, Lucy Sante's meticulous account of how New York City secured its seemingly limitless fresh water supply, and why it cannot be taken for granted. In inimitable form, Sante plumbs the historical record to surface forgotten archives and images, bringing lost places back to life on the page. Her immaculately calibrated sensitivity honors both perspectives on New York City's reservoir system and helps us understand the full import of its creation.
An essential history of the New York City region that will reverberate far beyond it, Nineteen Reservoirs examines universal divisions in our resources and priorities--between urban and rural, rich and poor, human needs and animal habitats. This is an unmissable account of triumph, tragedy, and unintended consequences.
With 29 present-day photographs by Tim Davis
Synopsis
Without the nineteen upstate reservoirs that supply its water, New York City as we know it would not exist today. " Sante] is an endlessly curious writer with a sharp wit and an elegant prose style . . . As a physical object, the book is a stunner, loaded with maps, archival stills of the construction process, vintage postcards, and ads warning New Yorkers to check their plumbing and 'stop that leak '"--The Wall Street Journal
From 1907 to 1967, a network of reservoirs and aqueducts was built across more than one million acres in upstate New York, including Greene, Delaware, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties. This feat of engineering served to meet New York City's ever-increasing need for water, sustaining its inhabitants and cementing it as a center of industry. West of the Hudson, it meant that twenty-six villages, with their farms, forest lands, orchards, and quarries, were bought for a fraction of their value, demolished, and submerged, profoundly altering ecosystems in ways we will never fully appreciate.
This paradox of victory and loss is at the heart of Nineteen Reservoirs, Lucy Sante's meticulous account of how New York City secured its seemingly limitless fresh water supply, and why it cannot be taken for granted. In inimitable form, Sante plumbs the historical record to surface forgotten archives and images, bringing lost places back to life on the page. Her immaculately calibrated sensitivity honors both perspectives on New York City's reservoir system and helps us understand the full import of its creation.
An essential history of the New York City region that will reverberate far beyond it, Nineteen Reservoirs examines universal divisions in our resources and priorities--between urban and rural, rich and poor, human needs and animal habitats. This is an unmissable account of triumph, tragedy, and unintended consequences.
With 29 present-day photographs by Tim Davis
Synopsis
From 1907 to 1967, a network of reservoirs and aqueducts was built across more than one million acres in upstate New York, including Greene, Delaware, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties. This feat of engineering served to meet New York City's ever-increasing need for water, sustaining its inhabitants and cementing it as a center of industry. West of the Hudson, it meant that twenty-six villages, with their farms, forest lands, orchards, and quarries, were bought for a fraction of their value, demolished, and submerged, profoundly altering ecosystems in ways we will never fully appreciate.
This paradox of victory and loss is at the heart of Nineteen Reservoirs, Lucy Sante's meticulous account of how New York City secured its seemingly limitless fresh water supply, and why it cannot be taken for granted. In inimitable form, Sante plumbs the historical record to surface forgotten archives and images, bringing lost places back to life on the page. Her immaculately calibrated sensitivity honors both perspectives on New York City's reservoir system and helps us understand the full import of its creation.
An essential history of the New York City region that will reverberate far beyond it, Nineteen Reservoirs examines universal divisions in our resources and priorities--between urban and rural, rich and poor, human needs and animal habitats. This is an unmissable account of triumph, tragedy, and unintended consequences.
With 29 present-day photographs by Tim Davis