THE GODS OF NEW YORK: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986-1990, wasn't that a time? @randomhouse.bsky.social lets Jonathan Maher retell it here: #Booksky expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-...

THE GODS OF NEW YORK: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986-1990, wasn't that a time?

THE GODS OF NEW YORK: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986-1990 JONATHAN MAHLER Random House ( non...

expendablemudge.blogspot.com

Listening to The Gods of New York and imagining that a micro history of our current moment would have to have a few pages on the Sour Cream & Onion Incident.

The new Jonathan Mahler book Gods of New York is great. Ed Koch tries to get some guys into a van with him. That's not the whole book, just one part that made me laugh. No I won't provide further context.

New York, 35 years ago; and a thru line right to nation of today

Just finished The Gods of New York by @jonathanmahler.bsky.social. BUY IT!! It’s a must read. Love NYC? It’s full of truths about NYC…and about Trump’s grift. If you worked in gov’t, politics, finance, real estate or social services from 1985-90, you’ll agree: Jonathan Mahler nailed it.

Jonathan Mahler@jonathanmahler.bsky.social · last yr.

THE GODS OF NEW YORK is out Aug 12! It's a narrative history of NYC in the 80s, a sort of sequel to The Bronx Is Burning. It's the story of a cast of outsized figures (Koch, Sharpton, Trump, Rudy, Larry Kramer, Spike Lee and more) who turned the city into their own, grand stage.

"Jonathan Mahler coins a useful euphemism, 'crisis opportunists' for the cast of this book...crooks, chancers & grifters, firebrand activists, rap stars, politicians scrambling up the greasy pole and falling back down again, people on the make – and Donald Trump." www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...

Here is Eighties New York, in all its brash, seedy glory

The city boasted lively characters – from a young Donald Trump to the Rev Al Sharpton – and plenty of grim spectacle

telegraph.co.uk

Part of the pleasure of “The Gods of New York” is that it chronicles a time when several important American political figures first strode onto the public stage

The four years when old New York died and a new one was born

Some of America’s most outlandish politicians also made their debuts in 1986-89

econ.st

One of the perks of being a writer is occasionally you get sent stuff.

Robert Redford?!? Read more here - shorturl.at/kbyMi @independent.ie @jonathanmahler.bsky.social

As colourful and fascinating as the city it captures. I reviewed The Gods Of New York: The Tumultuous Eighties, from Donald Trump to the Tompkins Square Riots by Jonathan Mahler for the Irish Independent. @jonathanmahler.bsky.social @independent.ie

‘Even his enemies admired his chutzpah’: How Trump became a God of New York in the 1980s

The back cover of this history of New York calls it “a real-life Bonfire of the Vanities”. Tom Wolfe’s bestselling 1987 novel about a bond trader who comes a cropper in a very serious way is also refe...

independent.ie

A new book by Jonathan Mahler, a writer for New York Times Magazine, argues that “luxury” New York was born in the turbulent years between 1986 and 1989

The four years when old New York died and a new one was born

Some of America’s most outlandish politicians also made their debuts in 1986-89

econ.st

Great piece by Jonathan Mahler today on how the forces that produced Mamdani have been building in NYC for decades--a backlash to the finance-driven economy that revived the city after the collapse of the 1970s. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

Opinion | Mamdani’s Rise Marks the End of a Chapter in American History

nytimes.com

Summer reading is in the eye of the beholder, and this, from Jonathan Mahler, promises to be the perfect counterpoint to our current, weird moment

The mayoral race of 1989, argues Jonathan Mahler in his new book, was the one that ushered in modern New York—and in 2025, its outlines are uncannily familiar.

The Mayoral Race of 1989 Looked a Lot Like This Year’s

The mayoral race of 1989, argues Jonathan Mahler in his new book, was the one that ushered in modern New York—and in 2025, its outlines are uncannily familiar.

curbed.com

Jonathan Mahler | 'The vacancy rate for [NYC] rental housing is 1.4 percent — as low as it has been since 1968 — and the median asking rent of $3,491 has gone up more than 18 percent in the past five years.' The system is rigged. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

Opinion | The Mamdani Moment Is About More Than You Realize

nytimes.com

Diving into the muck of NYC is one of my favorite things. It’s gonna be a good week. #TheGodsOfNewYork #NetGalley #kindle #BookSky

The Gods of New York — four fraught years that transformed the Big Apple on.ft.com/4myPHR2

The Gods of New York — four fraught years that transformed the Big Apple

A compelling portrait of the city argues that the ‘gladiatorial arena’ of egos in the late 1980s fractured its promise of a better life

on.ft.com

“Playground of the rich, a hotbed of sex and crime, and a haven for refugees” Review: The Gods of New York - How a decade of turmoil shaped the Big Apple www.historyanswers.co.uk/review/playg...

“Playground of the rich, a hotbed of sex and crime, and a haven for refugees” Review: The Gods of New York | All About History

New York has been many things throughout its history. As Jonathan Mahler recounts, during the 1980s the city underwent something of an identity crisis.

historyanswers.co.uk

'The Gods of New York' examines a pivotal moment in New York City history

'The Gods of New York' examines a pivotal moment in New York City history

Author Jonathan Mahler joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book 'The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990'.

on.msnbc.com

Reviewed @jonathanmahler.bsky.social's endlessly entertaining new book about late '80s NYC. What Mahler uncovers is not just the city’s past, but the country’s political future, already well underway: washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/12/t...

The Power Brokers | Washington Monthly

The Gods of New York revisits the city’s turbulent late 1980s, charting how crime, race, spectacle, and sheer ambition reshaped the city

washingtonmonthly.com

Excited to start reading this excavation of '80s New York by my old friend Jon Mahler. For those of us who remember that time here, it's been hard to escape the way the characters and fights and media culture and preoccupations of those days still animate today's reality, for better and worse...

Jonathan Mahler@jonathanmahler.bsky.social · last yr.

THE GODS OF NEW YORK is out Aug 12! It's a narrative history of NYC in the 80s, a sort of sequel to The Bronx Is Burning. It's the story of a cast of outsized figures (Koch, Sharpton, Trump, Rudy, Larry Kramer, Spike Lee and more) who turned the city into their own, grand stage.

It’s a great day for readers who love richly reported, rollicking history. Congrats to @jonathanmahler.bsky.social on his brilliant new book out today!

Jonathan Mahler@jonathanmahler.bsky.social · last yr.

THE GODS OF NEW YORK is out Aug 12! It's a narrative history of NYC in the 80s, a sort of sequel to The Bronx Is Burning. It's the story of a cast of outsized figures (Koch, Sharpton, Trump, Rudy, Larry Kramer, Spike Lee and more) who turned the city into their own, grand stage.

Jonathan Mahler provides an expansive yet fast-paced history of the final chaotic years of New York City’s 1980s. It’s an astute, propulsive history of the “entrenched” inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation. ‪@penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social‬

The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986–1990 by Jonathan Mahler

New York Times Magazine staff writer Mahler (The Challenge) provides an expansive yet fast-paced history of the final chaotic ye...

buff.ly

THE GODS OF NEW YORK is out Aug 12! It's a narrative history of NYC in the 80s, a sort of sequel to The Bronx Is Burning. It's the story of a cast of outsized figures (Koch, Sharpton, Trump, Rudy, Larry Kramer, Spike Lee and more) who turned the city into their own, grand stage.