Between 1920 and 1960, New York was the largest city in the world. It had the busiest port and the greatest industrial output on earth. By most measures, it was the capital of capitalism, the capital of the 20th century and the capital of the world. After 1960, the city and the region faltered, corporations departed, the middle class left and the overall population fell. By 1975, the city was, in effect, bankrupt.
On Wednesday, November 14, Kenneth Jackson will discuss why and how the metropolis reversed course and reclaimed its title as capital of the world. As editor-in-chief of the two-million-word Encyclopedia of New York City as well as a long-time denizen of the city's streets and subways, there are few who better understand the history and complex character of a city that has come to function at a 24/7 pace.
Kenneth T. Jackson is Director of the Herbert H. Lehman Center for the Study of American History and the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences at Columbia University. He has been a Fulbright Lecturer in Germany, Australia and Japan and a visiting professor at Princeton, UCLA and the George Washington University. He has lectured at hundreds of colleges, universities, civic groups and historical societies around the world and has been a featured guest on the NBC Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, ABC Nightline, CBS Evening News, CBS Up to the Minute, CNN, the History Channel, East West Television and more than forty documentary productions.
The Crooks Lecture is co-sponsored by the Greenwich Historical Society and the Greenwich Library. Admission is free but reservations are strongly suggested. Call 203-869-6899, Ext. 10 to reserve.
Wednesday, November 14, 2011.
Doors open at 7:00 pm. Lecture from 7:30 - 9:00 pm.
Greenwich Library, Cole Auditorium, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830