Jonathan Mahler with Amor Towles: The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990

Award-winning author and New York Times Magazine staff writer Jonathan Mahler joins us to discuss the transformative, tumultuous era in New York City he evokes vividly in The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990, with bestselling novelist Amor Towles.

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor.

New York entered 1986 as a city reborn. Record profits on Wall Street sent waves of money splashing across Manhattan, bringing a battered city roaring back to life.

But it also entered 1986 as a city whose foundation was beginning to crack. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets, addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illnesses. Nearly one-third of the city’s Black and Hispanic residents were living below the federal poverty line. Long-simmering racial tensions threatened to boil over.

The events of the next four years would split the city open. Howard Beach. Black Monday. Tawana Brawley. The crack epidemic. The birth of ACT UP. The Central Park jogger. The release of Do the Right Thing. And a cast of outsized characters—Ed Koch, Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Rudy Giuliani, Larry Kramer—would compete to shape the city’s future while building their own mythologies.

The Gods of New York is a kaleidoscopic and deeply immersive portrait of a city whose identity was suddenly up for grabs: Could it be both the great working-class city that lifted up immigrants from around the world and the money-soaked capital of global finance? Could it retain a civic culture—a common idea of what it meant to be a New Yorker—when the rich were building a city of their own and vast swaths of its citizens were losing faith in the systems meant to protect them? New York City was one thing at the dawn of 1986; it would be something very different as 1989 came to a close. This is the story of how that happened.

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jonathan Mahler is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of the bestselling Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, which was adapted as an ESPN miniseries, and The Challenge, a New York Times Notable Book. His journalism has received numerous awards and been featured in The Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Brooklyn.

Amor Towles is the author of New York Times bestsellers Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway, and Table for Two. His novels have collectively sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.

GET THE BOOK

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• This event will also include signing and sales of the book by our Library Shop.

Don't have a New York Public Library card? Get one here!

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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Please submit all press inquiries to Connor Goodwin at least 48 hours before the event: email connorgoodwin@nypl.org.
 

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All programs are subject to recording and photography.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).