Is the history of New York City the heart of the American story? Or does it exist in parallel, perhaps even independently, from the main American narrative. As with everything about the Big Apple (so good they named it twice), the answer is both. Or everything. At least according to Jonathan Mahler, author of The Gods of New York, a new history of the egoists and opportunists who remade the city in the 1980s. It’s the story of Donald Trump, of course, as well as Rudi Guiliani, Ed Koch, Spike Lee, Larry Kramer, Al Sharpton and an astonishingly entertaining cast of characters that only New York could create. But it’s also the broader American story of the victory of neo-liberal economics and ever-deepening chasm between Wall Street wealth and main street poverty. Mahler argues that the transformation from the "Mean Streets" dystopia of the 1970s to the finance-dominated metropolis of the 1980s didn't just save New York City —it created the troubling template for modern America, complete with all our current economic inequalities, political absurdities and tabloid cultural realities.
1. The 1980s Created Modern America's Template The transformation of New York from 1986-1990 wasn't just urban renewal—it was the birth of neoliberal America. The city's embrace of Wall Street, real estate development, and deregulation became the blueprint for how America would operate for the next four decades.
2. Power Shifted from Public to Private The era marked a fundamental transfer of urban power from public officials like Robert Moses and labor unions to private developers like Trump. Instead of government-led projects, cities began relying on private industry to drive development—often with devastating consequences for working-class communities.
3. Trump's Origin Story Explains His Political Magic Trick Trump went from being the 1980s symbol of greed and excess to becoming the voice of America's disaffected in 2016. This transformation from tabloid character to populist leader represents one of the most remarkable political reinventions in American history.
4. The American Dream Became Less Accessible New York's evolution into what Bloomberg called "a luxury product" reflects a broader national trend. The same forces that saved the city from 1970s decline also priced out working and middle-class families, making economic mobility increasingly difficult.
5. Tabloid Culture Became Political Culture The larger-than-life personalities who dominated 1980s New York—the "Gods" of Mahler's title—pioneered a celebrity-driven, spectacle-based approach to public life that eventually consumed American politics, from Trump's rise to our current media-saturated political landscape.
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