Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City

"Jonathan Soffer's biography of Ed Koch is a successful exploration of the history of one of New York's most charismatic mayors. It delivers on its promises on several levels, telling the history of Ed Koch the person, analyzing the politics of Koch, and then situating the story within the radical changes endured by the city and the United States during the many decades of Koch's political activism. This book is well written, accessible, thoughtful, and deals with a subject many New Yorkers care deeply about."

-Sven Beckert, Harvard University, author of The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie

"Jonathan Soffer has written a fascinating biography of New York City Mayor Ed Koch-but he has done so much more than that. He skillfully uses Koch's reign to tell the story of the city from 1978 to 1990, a rags-to-riches saga with many lessons for today's cities as they cope with enormous financial pressure. Whether or not you are a New Yorker, this marvelously told tale of a mayor and his city will grip you."

-Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard University, author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

"Jonathan Soffer is able to bring Ed Koch into critical focus through his narrative gaze, clean writing style, and expert use of a dazzling array of sources. By using such a colorful character as Koch, Soffer illuminates the way in which neoliberalism has made, remade, and unmade our urban landscape. He can do this without resorting to abstract historical or political debates, but by grounding the discussion in the nitty-gritty of New York City politics and the Koch years. Soffer illuminates the importance of Koch in local and national politics and represents a larger phenomenon in America life. By thoroughly examining the politics and policies of his mayoralty, he allows us to see more clearly the world in which we live."

-Richard Greenwald, Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University

"‘How'm I doin'?', Ed Koch's tagline, promised New Yorkers accountability and order after a fiscal crisis that brought the city to the verge of bankruptcy, the Son of Sam serial murders, and the racial mayhem of the July 1977 blackout. Brilliant and witty, jovial and magnetic, Koch was also a mean, stubborn, and polarizing figure. To understand the rise of modern New York City is to unravel the contradictions of Ed Koch. The Reagan Revolution and the collapse of the traditional Democratic alliance, homelessness and chronic poverty, the advent of the HIV-Aids epidemic, escalating crime and police brutality, housing shortages and failing schools, and even the the 1987 Palestinian uprising allowed Koch to influence national and international affairs. Yet the downfall of the world's most famous mayor came over peculiarly local issues, including one that continues to bedevil the city: the assumption that urban progress requires the casual acceptance of economic and racial privilege. Jonathan Soffer brilliantly navigates us through the sea of local, national, and international events that created the phenomenon that is ‘Hizzoner.'"

-Craig Steven Wilder, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Jonathan Soffer's is now the go-to book on Ed Koch and his mayoralty. Critical yet even-handed, it is lucidly written, theoretically sophisticated, and solidly sourced in interviews and archives. And it offers fresh perspectives on many aspects of New York's history in the 1960s-1990s, notably the neoliberal turn, the fiscal crisis, racial and religious relations, and the interlinked trinity of gentrification, homelessness, and redevelopment."