One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025
The author of The Island at the Center of the World offers up a thrilling narrative of how New York—that brash, bold, archetypal city—came to be.
In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general.
Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery. The book draws from newly translated materials and illuminates neglected histories—of religious refugees, Indigenous tribes, and free and enslaved Africans.
Taking Manhattan tells the riveting story of the birth of New York City as a center of capitalism and pluralism, a foundation from which America would rise. It also shows how the paradox of New York’s origins—boundless opportunity coupled with subjugation and displacement—reflects America’s promise and failure to this day. Russell Shorto, whose work has been described as “astonishing” (New York Times) and “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune), has once again mined archival sources to offer a vibrant tale and a fresh and trenchant argument about American beginnings.
About the Author
Russell Shorto is the best-selling author of eight books, including Smalltime, Revolution Song, Amsterdam, and The Island at the Center of the World. He is the director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New York Historical and senior scholar at the New Netherland Institute.
Praise For…
Russell Shorto tells the story beautifully, and makes a compelling case for its enduring importance. — Jacob Goldstein - New York Times
Mr. Shorto... [tells] backstories in vivid and sometimes creative detail. — D.G. Hart - Wall Street Journal
This vivid history chronicles England’s “taking” of New Amsterdam from the Dutch, in 1664. Shorto, however, argues that it was the Dutch, not the English, who sowed the seeds of the multiethnic, religiously tolerant, and unabashedly capitalistic metropolis that would emerge as New York. — The New Yorker
Fascinating . . . [Shorto's] vivid account emphasizes New York’s roots in pluralism and a capitalist ethos while also tracing the roles of slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans in the city’s founding. — Christian Science Monitor
A masterful account of the international struggle for control of 17th-century Manhattan, a fascinating, often overlooked saga. . .packed with intrigue and fascinating subplots. . . A bracing narrative of the international standoff that birthed America’s biggest city. — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Shorto's revelatory sequel to The Island at the Center of the World . . . readers will be wowed.
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A riveting account of the men and women of Indigenous, Dutch, African, Jewish, and English descent who populated this thriving seventeenth-century port. Filled with new knowledge, eloquent prose, and international intrigue, Russell Shorto’s history will take your breath away. — Tiya Miles, National Book Award winner and author of Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
More than any other person, Russell Shorto rescued New Amsterdam from historic obscurity. Shorto is a great researcher and a persuasive storyteller. — Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University
New Amsterdam—pluralistic, capitalistic, pulsing with energy—has survived. Best of all, Russell Shorto himself feels everywhere present in these spirited, revelatory pages. — Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Revolutionary
In this fascinating book, Russell Shorto unravels the DNA inside New York. I thought I knew New York, but it opened my eyes to the city and its rich history. — Fareed Zakaria, author of Age of Revolutions
Taking Manhattan picks up where The Island at the Center of the World leaves off. Shorto’s masterful narrative brings the much-neglected stories of Native Americans and African Americans into a heady stew that is our real founding story.
— Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game
Nobody understands the origins of New York City better than historian Russell Shorto. Taking Manhattan brilliantly illuminates how a seventeenth century Dutch enclave of 1,500 residents, on acreage swindled from Native Americans, rose to become the most cosmopolitan New World port in the 17th century and beyond. Shorto, a detail-driven scholar, seamlessly weaves together secondary literature with newly translated Dutch documents to astonishing effect. This narrative is the historiographical Rosetta Stone of how New York City was born. With keen exactitude, Shorto explains how the Atlantic Slave Trade was an essential component of the building of New York City. As both a work of American and European history Taking Manhattan soars!
— Douglas Brinkley, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, author of Rightful Heritage
