Scholar Jonathan Ezra Goldman explores the overlooked people, places, and movements that shaped Roaring Twenties New York City.

In his new book, Professor Jonathan Ezra Goldman brings to life a city defined by both extraordinary creativity and deep inequality through the stories of individuals whose experiences challenge popular ideas of the Jazz Age as a time of only wealth and celebration. Panoramic in scope but local in focus, Goldman examines major events such as the Harlem Renaissance and Prohibition through the lives of the people, places, and communities that shaped the era—from an all-female police platoon and an Arabic literary salon to Black amusement parks and lesbian cafés. Drawing on the Library’s vast holdings—from the Prints and Photographs Collection to the Map Division—Goldman reveals a more expansive portrait of Jazz Age New York.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jonathan Ezra Goldman (he/him) is Distinguished Professor at New York Institute of Technology's Department of Humanities. His new book, Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York from the Suppressed to the Strange "deserves a prominent place on any shelf of enduring works of New York City history" (Jonathan Mahler, The Gods of New York). Goldman's previous books include Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity and Joyce and the Law. He directs the digital project, NY 1920s: 100 Years Ago Today, is president of the James Joyce Society, plays trumpet in a Latin boogaloo band, and lives in the Mitchell-Lama building where he grew up.

READ THE BOOK:

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


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ACCESSIBILITY

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Courtesy Jonathan Ezra Goldman