About this item
What happens when an entire social class abandons a metropolis? This genre-bending journey through lockdown New York offers an exhilarating, intimate look at a city returned to its rebellious spirit.The pandemic lockdown of 2020 launched an unprecedented urban experiment. Traffic disappeared from the streets. Times Square fell silent. And half a million residents fled the most crowded city in America. In this innovative and thrilling book, author and social critic Jeremiah Moss, hailed as "New York City's career elegist" (New York Times) , explores a city emptied of the dominant class -- and their controlling influence. "Plagues have a disinhibiting effect," Moss writes. "As the normal order is suspended, the repressive force of civilization lifts and our rules fall away, shifting the boundaries of society and psyche.
About the Author
JEREMIAH MOSS, creator of the award- winning blog Vanishing NewYork, is the pen name of Griffin Hansbury. His writing on the city hasappeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and onlinefor The New Yorker and The Paris Review. As Hansbury, he is the authorof The Nostalgist, a novel, and works as a psychoanalyst in privatepractice in New York City.Praise for Vanishing New York:"Essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs, Joseph Mitchell, Patti Smith, Luc Sante, and cheap pierogi." -Vanity Fair"This is a very good, angrily passionate, and ultimately saddening book.... a brilliantly written and well-informed account." -Booklist, starred review"Vanishing New York is an urban-activist polemic in the tradition of Jane Jacobs's Death and Life of Great American Cities: Every page is charged with Moss's deep love of New York. It is both a vital and unequivocally depressing read." -Village Voice"a vigorous, righteously indignant book that would do Jane Jacobs proud." --Kirkus "This polemic is likely to stir a lot of emotions."--Publishers Weekly"A relevant lamentation of New York's rebellious, nonconformist past and its path toward an inexpressive mélange of glass and steel big box stores and chain restaurants." --New York Journal of Books
