The egotists, idealists, opportunists, and the birth of the modern city : 1986-1990 Mahler, Jonathan 1969- creator author. text bibliography nyu 2025 First edition. monographic eng 451 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. "New York City entered 1986 as a city reborn, with record profits on Wall Street sending waves of money splashing across Manhattan and bringing a once-bankrupt, reeling city back to life. But it also entered 1986 as a city divided. Nearly one-third of the city's Black and Hispanic residents were living below the federal poverty line. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets-and in many cases addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illness. The manufacturing jobs that had once sustained a thriving middle class had vanished. Long-simmering racial tensions threatened to boil over. Over the next four years, a singular confluence of events-involving a cast of outsized, unforgettable characters-would widen those divisions into chasms. Ed Koch. Donald Trump. Al Sharpton. The Central Park Five. Spike Lee. Rudy Giuliani. Howard Beach. Tawana Brawley. The Preppy Murder. Jimmy Breslin. Do the Right Thing, Wall Street, crack, the AIDS epidemic, and, of course, ready to pour gasoline on every fire-the tabloids. In The Gods of New York, Jonathan Mahler tells the story of these convulsive, defining years"-- Provided by publisher. Prologue 1986 1987 1988 1989 Epilogue Jonathan Mahler. Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-430) and index. n-us-ny New York (N.Y.) History 1951- Nueva York (Estados Unidos) Historia 1951- Nueva York (Estados Unidos) Administración New York (N.Y.) Politics and government 1951- Nueva York (Estados Unidos) Política y gobierno 1951- 002 F 128.55 M214g 2025 974.7/1043 Mahler, Jonathan, 1969- New York, NY: Random House, [2025] First edition (DLC) 2025008477 24171554 9780525510635 (hardcover) 052551063X (hardcover) 2025008476 LBSOR 250426 20260619125636.0 24171554 eng