Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City 
asked by cannoli on November 29, 2006 12:56 PM
New York City in 1977 was in the middle of wild upheaval on all fronts, from the hunt for the Son of Sam killer and the citywide blackout to a brutal mayor's race and the rise of punk rock and the zenith of disco. In Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, journalist Jonathan Mahler revisits all those storylines through another drama, which grabbed tabloid headlines all summer long: the outrageous--and pennant-winning--New York Yankees. The Yankees weren't the greatest baseball team ever assembled--they weren't even the greatest of the era (the talent-laden Cincinnati Reds were superior player for player). But no modern team has earned more type than the "Bronx Zoo" Yanks of the late '70s, thanks in no small part to such characters as meddling owner George Steinbrenner, firebrand manager Billy Martin, and flashy slugger Reggie Jackson.
But what more is there to say about a ball club, even one as stormy and successful as the '77 Yanks? Mahler wisely strays out of the dugout and into the chaotic city to give his chronicle breadth and shape. Mahler deftly brings together a host of characters and developments--from doomed old-school catcher Thurman Munson to congressional hellraiser Bella Abzug, from media kingpin Rupert Murdoch to battling politicos Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo, from downtown punks to the glittery decadence of Studio 54. The result is a lively read that will entertain readers who wouldn't know an RBI from CBGB. --Steven Stolder
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Every once in a while you have a book that you just have to keep reading. This is one of them. I knew nothing about baseball, but knew Reggie Jackson from Topps trading cards I used to have when I was a kid. I knew nothing about the Blackout of '77, Abe Beam the Mayor before Koch, how Cuomo almost became mayor, that Abzug was a politician instead of a Mad Magazine character, and that the West Side Highway was closed and crumbling... My wife loved it too. Recommended!
reviewed by bigben on November 29, 2006 3:02 PM
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The 1970s was not a great time for major cities nationwide. It was a point where the optimism generated from The Great Society came crashing down, the racial divide became cavernous and urban decay was a standard of living.
New York City swallowed the bitter pill in 1977 with a citywide power outage and massive looting that followed, a mayoral campaign long on oftentimes nasty rhetoric but short on tangible solutions, the Son of Sam murders and an emerging style of newspaper reporting of style over substance. And before I forget, there was the diamond opera of George, Billy & Reggie in "The House That Ruth Built."
Author Jonathan Mahler does a spectacular job in weaving so many storylines in a concise history of a city in crisis. It is highly readable and moves with a swift pace of a novel and again shows how fact is stranger than fiction when politics ambles to home plate and egos are larger than simple commonsense.
New York City swallowed the bitter pill in 1977 with a citywide power outage and massive looting that followed, a mayoral campaign long on oftentimes nasty rhetoric but short on tangible solutions, the Son of Sam murders and an emerging style of newspaper reporting of style over substance. And before I forget, there was the diamond opera of George, Billy & Reggie in "The House That Ruth Built."
Author Jonathan Mahler does a spectacular job in weaving so many storylines in a concise history of a city in crisis. It is highly readable and moves with a swift pace of a novel and again shows how fact is stranger than fiction when politics ambles to home plate and egos are larger than simple commonsense.
reviewed by selena on November 29, 2006 3:15 PM