Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center

By Eric Darton

Book Overview

When the World Trade Center was erected at the Hudson River's edge, it forever changed the character of the American city. In Divided We Stand, cultural critic Eric Darton chronicles the life of this billion-dollar building, using it as a lens through which to view the broader twentieth-century trend toward urbanized, global culture. Drawing on political and social history, Darton pioneers a new hybrid genre of architectural biography, revealing the convergence of four volatile elements in contemporary urban life: super tall buildings, financial speculation, globalization, and terrorism.

Now with a new introduction and afterword, Divided We Stand remains the definitive work on the birth and life of the World Trade Center.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465027652
• ISBN13: 9780465027651
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

From a Native New Yorker

I loved this book. It is a prophetic and daring account of the trade towers written while they were still symbols on our skyline and before anyone but a handful of people cared enough to look at them as something more. This is an incredible book too, because it is the closest we will get to knowing these buildings now, to hearing what they might have told us if they could speak. The author saw the towers as vulnerable and toubled and dangerous, and makes no bones about the violence and greeed written into their building. But above all, his love of New York shines through.

ASTONISHING & WONDERFUL

This book has truly blown my mind, it is so prophetic and daring, and was weitten while the trade towers were still standing. And before any but a handful of people cared enough about them to ask serious questions about how they came to be there and what they meant to and for us all. This is an incredible book to have because it brings us as close to knowing these buildings as we will ever get. The author saw the towers as troubled and vulnerable and dangerous. He saw through through their facades to see the humanity within. Angry as he at the powerful people who subverted a public agency to build a real estate development, above all his love of New York City shines through.

Lessons in Wealth and Politics

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in learning about the politics and the money that helped build WTC and develop Lower Manhattan. One would be amazed how influential and determined the Rockefeller brothers were at making sure these towers were built. After reading this book I would be curious to know how the critics and opponents(Radio Row shop keepers) now feel about the destruction of this so called symbol of International Trade?

How it got here

For those living in, around or even in the same civilization with it, "New York City" is so big, pervasisve and implacable as to be invisible. It has gone beyond a simple geographical location to take on the character of an environment, and its denizens are to New York what fish are to water. Darton performs an invaluable service in showing that the salient features of that environment are not the end result of impersonal processes, but the calculated consequences of decisions made by controlling claques determined to see that the city's development suited their own interests. Delivered with keen insight and wit, this book is a must read for anyone with a passing interest in the forces shaping the development of the modern American megalopolae.

"Divided We Stand" Stands Out

This book is much more than its title implies. Beyond its focus on the World Trade Center, it descibes the development of Lower Manhattan with an inside look at a naked land grab by the Port Authority under the guise of public interest. Other major players include David and Nelson Rockefeller with the apparent collusion of the New York Times. In addition to a lovely image of the WTC rising through the clouds in the frontispiece, each of the nine chapters opens with a beautiful photograph that illustrates the text. As you navigate this lyrically written exposé, don't miss the witty subheads.