New York: Art and Cultural Capital of the Gilded Age

Fueled by a flourishing capitalist economy, undergirded by advancements in architectural design and urban infrastructure, and patronized by growing bourgeois and elite classes, New Yorks built environment was dramatically transformed in the 1870s and 1880s. This book argues that this constituted the formative period of New Yorks modernization and cosmopolitanismthe product of a vital self-consciousness and a deliberate intent on the part of its elite citizenry to create a world-class cultural metropolis reflecting the citys economic and political preeminence. The interdisciplinary essays in this book examine New Yorks late nineteenth-century evolution not simply as a question of its physical layout but also in terms of its radically new social composition, comprising the individuals, institutions, and organizations that played determining roles in the citys cultural ascendancy.