GOWANUS: BROOKLYN’S CURIOUS CANAL

Book ID/图书代码： 14932715B80485

English Summary/英文概要： For more than 150 years, Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal has been called a cesspool, an industrial dumping ground, and a blemish on the face of the populous borough—as well as one of the most important waterways in the history of New York harbor. Yet its true origins, man-made character, and importance to the city have been largely forgotten.

Now, New York writer and guide Joseph Alexiou explores how the Gowanus creek—a naturally-occurring tidal estuary that served as a conduit for transport and industry during the colonial era—came to play an outsized role in the story of America’s greatest city. From the earliest Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, to nearby Revolutionary War skirmishes, or the opulence of the Gilded Age mansions that sprung up in its wake, historical changes to the Canal and the neighborhood that surround it have functioned as a microcosm of the story of Brooklyn’s rapid nineteenth-century growth.

Highlighting the biographies of nineteenth-century real estate moguls like Daniel Richards and Edwin C. Litchfield, Alexiou recalls the forgotten movers and shakers that laid the foundation of modern-day Brooklyn. As he details, the pollution, crime, and industry associated with the Gowanus stretch back far earlier than the twentieth century, and helped define the culture and unique character of this celebrated borough. The story of the Gowanus, like Brooklyn itself, is a tale of ambition and neglect, bursts of creative energy, and an inimitable character that has captured the imaginations of city-lovers around the world.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 150年来，布鲁克林的郭瓦纳斯运河被称为一个粪坑，一个工业垃圾场，以及纽约人口稠密区脸面的污点——并且它曾是纽约港历史上最重要的运河之一。然而，它的真正起源，人为的特点和对城市的重要性已基本被遗忘。

现在，纽约的家和导游约瑟夫•亚历克西乌探索了郭瓦纳斯运河，这条自然发生的潮汐河口，在殖民时代是如何为运输和工业发生作用的——以及曾在美国最大城市的历史中扮演重要的角色。从最早的新阿姆斯特丹的荷兰桥民，到近代革命战争的冲突，或镀金时代的富裕以至于在其身后拔地而起的豪宅，运河的历史变迁，以及成为布鲁克林在19世纪快速成长的缩影的它周围的一切。

突出了19世纪如丹尼尔•理查兹和埃德温•C•利奇菲尔德这样的房地产大亨的传记，阿历克斯回忆奠定了如今的布鲁克林基础的被遗忘的呼风唤雨的人物。他详细讲述了追溯远早于二十世纪的和郭瓦纳斯运河相关的污染，犯罪和行业，并帮助定义了这个著名地区的文化和独特的性格。郭瓦纳斯运河的故事，就像布鲁克林本身，是一个关于野心和被忽视，创意能量的爆发，以及吸引着世界各地城市爱好者的想象力的独特个性的故事。(LNL)

Awards/获奖情况：“郭瓦纳斯运河的水域是如此黑暗和泥泞，约瑟夫•亚历克西乌使它们成为城市历史的辉煌镜子。在他灵巧的双手中，运河提供了精辟和完全意想不到的方式来理解布鲁克林，更广泛地说，是美国的市民——从本地人到工厂主，投机者，匪徒，上流社会的资产阶级和人体艺术潮人。这是一本有着不懈研究和叙事锐气的书。”塞缪尔•G•弗里德曼，哥伦比亚大学

“这本研究丰富，书写洋洋洒洒和知识渊博的书不仅给那些像我一样住在海岸附近的人，还有那些喜欢城市历史以及渴望了解那些影响城市的今天的戏剧和矛盾的转化的人，解释了很多关于我们时髦，备受虐待和可爱的航道的事情。”——菲利浦•洛佩特，《海滨》的作者

“谁能想到这条奇怪，1.8英里长的纽约水道有这样一个有趣的，迷人的和隐藏的历史？记者约瑟夫•亚历克西乌带来了布鲁克林的郭瓦纳斯运河的生活，包括它所有的地形带，政治影响，和具有历史意义的荣耀。一次智慧和令人印象深刻的首秀“——苏珊•夏皮罗，《波斯尼亚名单》的作者

"As dark and sludgy as the waters of the Gowanus Canal are, Joseph Alexiou makes them into a brilliant mirror of urban history. In his skillful hands, the canal provides an incisive and entirely unexpected way of understanding Brooklyn—and, more broadly, American cities—from native peoples through factory owners, speculators, gangsters, brownstone bourgeoisie, and body-art hipsters. Here is a book of relentless research and narrative elan."-Samuel G. Freedman,Columbia University

"This well-researched, jauntily written, knowledgeable book explains a lot about our funky, much-abused, lovable waterway, not only to those like myself who live near its shores, but to anyone with an appetite for urban history and a desire to fathom the dramatic, contradictory transformations affecting metropolises today."-Phillip Lopate,author of Waterfront

"Who could have thought a curious, 1.8 mile long New York waterway would have such a fun, fascinating, hidden history? Journalist Joseph Alexiou brings Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to life with all its gore, political ramifications, and gentrified glory. An intelligent and impressive debut."-Susan Shapiro,author of The Bosnia List

About the Author/作者介绍： 约瑟夫•亚历克西乌是《巴黎指南》第六版的作者。他是“纽约时间”的副主编，他的作品刊登在“纽约观察员”，“Gothamist”和“纽约杂志的日常信息”上。

Joseph Alexiou is the author of the sixth edition of Paris for Dummies. He is an associate editor at Time Out New York, and his writing has appeared in the New York Observer, Gothamist and New York Magazine’s Daily Intel.

Format:

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

原文第一章内容：暂无

手稿：暂无

大纲：暂无