“a tour de force, a work of astonishing breadth and depth….He looks at the city from all points of view, from that of the poorest outsiders to the Masters of the Universe, and best of all he brings to life the volunteers, the everyday New Yorkers, who stepped forward to save their city when it needed them most….He has already, in this outstanding work, done all that a historian can do to light the way forward, by so vividly illuminating the past.”
— Kevin Baker, New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2021

The National Book Review 10 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2021

Freakonomics Book Club Selection

“Superb reflections on a city resurgent…Dyja goes far beyond politics and Wall Street: he is equally interested in and intelligent about everything from Aids to hip-hop, Keith Haring and Anna Wintour, Spike Lee, Jay-Z and Elaine Kaufman…This is an especially important book for the majority of New Yorkers too young to remember the remarkable trajectory the city has experienced…”
— Charles Kaiser, The Guardian

One of the best books of 2021 —Fortune

McKinsey & Company Summer Reading List, 2021

“This opinionated, encyclopedic and wise chronicle coincides exactly with my time in the city so far, yet I learned something new on every page — and finished with a deeper appreciation of the astounding, self-loving, evolving hive New Yorkers inhabit.
— Kurt Andersen, author of the New York Times bestsellers Evil Geniuses and Fantasyland

“Dyja’s history is a wild ride. So much information is so swiftly conveyed that the book’s form is an almost haptic conjuring of the city itself.”
–Erica Wagner, New Statesman

“An exhaustively researched, eye-opening look at the great city’s tumultuous, transformative recent history and what comes next.”
— People Magazine

“a psychedelic express subway ride, from pre-1970s fiscal crisis to post-pandemic”
–Sam Roberts, New York Times

“A book as marvelous and maddening as the city itself…Dyja’s energetic storytelling, eclectic interests, and supple prose make New York, New York, New York a tour de force, and his intellectual integrity overcomes the passionate political convictions that help to make his chronicle so pungent.”
–Daniel Akst, Reason

“This engaging book has the potential to become a classic text.”
— Library Journal

Dyja’s stellar achievement with this indispensable book has been to write of the last four decades of New York in the very way that the city likes to think of itself – as propulsive, alluring, energetic, infuriating, scrappy, lyrical, nostalgic, omniscient, staggering, memorable, magical. The result is a history like no other for a city like no other.
— Simon Winchester, NY Times bestselling author of The Professor And The Madman and The Men Who United The States

“captivating”
–Nathalie Collard, La Presse

“Dyja’s prose sparkles and sings, revealing endlessly fascinating details while never bogging down or losing an overall sense of forward momentum. This is brilliant work on a broad canvas.”
—Passport

Dyja’s omnivorous curiosity….exhaustive knowledge of the era, dazzling prose, and all-embracing sympathy—and scorn when it’s merited—make for a stimulating study of New York’s never-ending upheaval.
—Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review