A large-scale project of this sort will inevitably have many debts to acknowledge and I do so with great pleasure. I want to first thank Peter Dougherty, director of Princeton University Press, for believing in this idea and giving me the opportunity to realize it. I am also indebted to my editor, Eric Schwartz, for his careful guidance, support, and enthusiasm, even to the point of traveling with me to various parts of the city. Jill Hughes, my copyeditor, played an important role in improving and polishing the manuscript, as did Senior Production Editor Kathleen Cioffi. Kudos too, to Jessica Pellien, Assistant Publicity Director, for her efforts on my behalf. Many thanks to all the other people at Princeton who helped me. It’s a privilege to work with such a great group of people.
I’m especially appreciative of the past mayors of New York City, each of whom gave generously of their time and shared very valuable insights and reflections with me: Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, David Dinkins, and the late Edward Koch.
My gratitude to my colleagues and other knowledgeable people who evaluated and commented on my work at various stages cannot be overstated. I’m especially thankful to Roger Waldinger, Mitchell Duneier, Elijah Anderson, John Mollenkopf, Peter Moskos, Alford Young Jr., and Paul and Irene Marcus. Others who greatly sharpened my focus, saved me from errors, and enhanced my understanding of the subject include Richard Alba, Bill Kornblum, Phil Kasinitz, Nancy Foner, Herbert Gans, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Sharon Zukin, Mary Clare Lennon, Joseph Berger, Sheldon and Tobie Czapnik, Leslie Paik, Reuben Jack Thomas, Mary Curtis, Keith Thompson, Ramona Hernandez, Mildred Green, Alan Helmreich, Denise Helmreich, Danny Frankel, Jack Nass, Eli Goldschmidt, Joan Downs, Steven Goldberg, Allan Rudolf, Roslyn Bologh, Esther Friedman, Sylvia Barack-Fishman, David Halle, Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Maritsa Poros, Lily Hoffman, L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy, Mehdi Bozorgmehr, Parmatma Saran, Howard Fuchs, Jim Biles, Katherine Chen, Chudi Uwazaurike, Iris Lopez, Francis Terrell, Robert Katz, Susan Tanenbaum, Arline McCord, Zach Dicker, Stephen Rabinowitz, Stuart Feintuch, Erwin Fried, Bill Green, Sanford Goldfless, Albert Weinstein, David Stetch, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Nomi Rabinowitz, Amnon Shiloach, Samuel Heilman, Jeffrey Gurock, Philip Jacobs, Sydelle and Robert Knepper, Archie Dykes, Ivan and Lisa Kaufman, Rona Woldenberg, Martin Werber, Edward Wydra, Gil Wachstock, Philip Fishman, Pearl and Nathan Halegua, Daniel Vitow, Stuart Rubenfeld, Patrick Sharkey, Cordell Schachter, Gwen Dordick, Jack Levinson, Laura Bowman, Jack Wertheimer, Ira Salomon, Lisa Helmrich, Tom Schott, Jenna Snow, Evan Nass, and Deborah Van Amerongen. Special thanks also to my photographers, Jesse Liss and Bob Marcus.
As they say, “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” In that sense I’d like to acknowledge my early mentors at Washington University in St. Louis—Irving Louis Horowitz, Lee Rainwater, Jules Henry, Alvin Gouldner, Nicholas Demerath, Irving Zeitlin, George Rawick, David Pittman, and John Goering—who taught me how to think sociologically and out of the box. Through the early years of my career, there were colleagues who served as role models, especially William McCord, Joseph Bensman, Bernard Rosenberg, Gerald Handel, and Betty Yorburg.
Many others helped in a myriad of ways and I wanted to acknowledge them as well. They know what they did and what it meant to me and to the success of this undertaking: Karin Feldhamer, Suri Kasirer, Amanda Constam, Eric Creizman, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Nathan Goldberg, Avi Hadar, Marcelle Fischler, Edward Bader, Joe Potasnik, Thomas DiNapoli, Nicholas Di Marzio, Dennis Sullivan, Willie Rapfogel, Bill Helmrich, Gary Knobel, Judith Rothman, Aaron Freilich, Kenneth Cohen, Michael Nicolosi, Itzhak Haimovic, Gary Goldberg, Michael Pliskin, Arden Smith, Lizza Colon, Denise Major, Joyce and Ira Goldstein, Helen and Harvey Ishofsky, Harriet and David Schimel, David Werber, Judith Connorton, Arnie Breitbart, Charlotte Wendel, Len Gappelberg, Neil Kalt, Billy and Nechama Liss-Levenson, Edward Auerbach, and Ramona Hernandez.
I’m blessed to have a very talented family of writers. All of my children—Jeff, Joseph, and Deborah—read the manuscript carefully. Their comments were incisive and very thoughtful and this is a better book because of their efforts.
Most of all, I owe a great deal to my wife, Helaine, an exceptionally talented novelist, biographer, and historian. As she has done with all of my books, she read every word that I wrote and made hundreds of invaluable suggestions, from both a literary and conceptual standpoint. It was as much a labor of love for her as it was for me, and she accompanied me on more than a few field trips. It has been my great fortune to have her as a wife, friend, and intellectual companion.