Manhattan

A few weeks back I presented a program with Michael Lerner, the author of Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City. I like to read the books of the authors I present, and so far I have managed to do this (though I don’t always finish in time for the program). In the case of Dry Manhattan, when I made my presentation I had only one chapter left.

If you have not seen the cover of this book, well let me say it the sharpest jacket cover I have ever seen. And even though they always tell you in library school that you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, Dry Manhattan’s wonderful jacket cover is indicative of the pages therein.

New York City history is always fun and when it is well written, interesting and important, to me that spells “winner!” And that’s what this book is. I can say this with confidence because not only have I read the book, but I noticed another co-worker reading it as well. He and I discussed what we liked about it and not surprisingly they were the same things. More recently, I noticed another co-worker getting ready to read the book. She’d gotten a glowing recommendation from the co-worker with whom I had discussed the book. Like I said, it’s a winner.

Lerner brings together many parts of history that before, for me, had been separate and independent of each other. History for which I had sensed there were connections but never could see how or why they fit together. Dry Manhattan is a wonderful road map to a place I did not understand before.