Research Catalog

Fear city : New York's fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics

Title
Fear city : New York's fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics / Kim Phillips-Fein.
Author
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Publication
  • New York : Metropolitan Books, 2017.
  • ©2017

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFE 17-5331Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description
xii, 401 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm
Summary
"An epic and riveting history of New York City on the edge of disaster--and an anatomy of the politics of austerity that continues to shape the world today. When the news broke in 1975 that New York City was on the brink of fiscal collapse, few believed it was possible: how could the capital of the financial world go bankrupt? And yet the city was billions of dollars--maybe twelve, maybe fourteen, no one even really knew how much--in the red. Bankers and politicians alike seized upon the situation as evidence that social liberalism, which New York famously exemplified, was doomed to failure--and promised apocalyptic scenarios if the city didn't fire thousands of workers, freeze wages, and slash social services. In this vivid, gripping account, historian Kim Phillips-Fein tells the remarkable story of the crisis that engulfed the city, forever transforming the largest metropolis in the United States and reshaping ideas about government throughout the country. In doing so, she brings to life a radically different New York, the legendarily decrepit city of the 1970s. Drawing on never-before-used archival sources as well as interviews with key players in the crisis, Phillips-Fein guides us through the hairpin turns and sudden reversals that brought New York City to the edge of bankruptcy--and kept it from going over. At once a sweeping history of some of the most tumultuous times in the city's past, a colorful portrait of the unwieldy mechanics of municipal government, and an origin story of the politics of austerity, Fear City is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the resurgent fiscal conservatism of today."--
Subjects
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Part I: Origins -- Warnings -- The gap -- The neighborhood bookkeeper -- Sounding the alarm -- Things fall apart -- Washington politics -- Part II: Crisis -- Big Mac -- Fear city -- The facts of life -- On the brink -- Drop dead -- Pastrami and Rambouillet -- Part III: Legacies -- State of emergency -- The people's firehouse -- The college in the tire factory -- A new New York -- Blackout politics -- The final storm.
Call Number
JFE 17-5331
ISBN
  • 9780805095258
  • 080509525X
LCCN
2016033559
OCLC
922457948
Author
Phillips-Fein, Kim, author.
Title
Fear city : New York's fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics / Kim Phillips-Fein.
Publisher
New York : Metropolitan Books, 2017.
Copyright Date
©2017
Edition
First edition.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Chronological Term
1900-1999
Research Call Number
JFE 17-5331
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