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

Rating:
Summary: CONCISE BUT WELL-DOCUMENTED!
Review: From the perspective of someone who is not an American but have had the opportunity to visit New York on three or fout times over the years, the city never ceases to amaze me. I have travelled extensively to every major city in Canada and many in the U.S.A., but no city in North American captivates or intrigues me more than New York. There is something about the intermingling of lifestyles, culture, wealth and glitter that draws one to its core like a magnet. Manhattan is, indeed, a world of its own.

The pages of this book reveal not only an inside look at the World Trade Center but a history of Manhattan. While this may seem like basic common knowledge for Americans, it makes for exceptionally interesting reading to Canadians who have undoubtedly studied less American history that our neighbours to the south. The writing style, however, did seem slightly dry by times which is the reason the book lost a star in the rating. Do not let this discourage you from reading the book; it is informative and highly educational.

Rating:
Summary: From a Native New Yorker
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not what the title might suggest...
Review: I purchased this book expecting to find a detailed biography of the World Trade Center. I assumed this would include the planning, construction, and every-day existence of the towers, as well as information about the 1993 terrorist attack.

Instead, the vast majority of this book is an extreme left-wing critical attack on the large-scale federal planning and reconstruction of the American city which took place in the 1950's and 1960's. Make no mistake, the author considers the WTC towers to be a complete abomination and to have been a blight on the New York skyline. He even goes so far as to suggest that the reader imagine the towers as a pile of rubble.

That being said, the parts of the book which actually focus on the WTC is quite interesting, and offer some insight into the actual goings on at the site. If you are willing to wade through the half of the book which focuses on city planning, you may find something interesting in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Subject Matter Also Divided
Review: I would agree with many of the other reviewers here that the author did not give the reader the complete biography of the building. He almost completely focused on a review of New York politics leading up to the build. I wish he had spent time on the construction of the site. One even could get the impression that the author was not happy about the WTC project as a whole. A good amount of time in the book was spent talking about the businesses that had to be relocated or just kicked out due to the full project. Based on this I would say that the book was tilted to a negative view of the creation of the WTC site.

What saved the book for me were both the authors writing style and the interesting view into the politics of New York. The author is truly gifted, his word choice really make you pay attention to the text. He is also great at keeping the flow going through some (at times) rather dull information. He review of the politics behind the creation of the WTC was well worth the time to read the book. It was a who's who of real estate and banking leaders all trying to get in the action and suck up to the governor and mayor. Overall the book was interesting, but not complete.

Rating:
Summary: Written at the Right Time
Review: Of course, the twin towers mean many different things and to many different people than they did a year ago when this book first came out. But that, in many ways, is the pleasure of this book. It looks at the twin towers from a perspective not clouded by the recent tradegy of the towers. The author, Eric Danton in Divided We Stand (A Biography of New York's World Trade Center) is unflinching in looking at the creation of these towers on many fronts, including philosophical, economic and political, with the Rockefeller brothers playing the pivotal roles. This book glosses over or ignores the building's technical aspects, for those who are interested (and truthfully, it would have been helpful at times to keep things in perspective). The parts describing terrorism and the towers in ruins (and there are a number of times these are mentioned) are painfully chilling. This is a honest examination of an important part of New York (and now American) history.

Rating:
Summary: Divided I Sit
Review: Part history lesson, part autobiography (in the second person, no less!), part architectural study, part urban planning critique... No wonder my thoughts about this book are fragmented and ambivalent. I wish the book had been written in a few separate complete sections, something like Part One--The History of New York Real Estate, Part Two--The Forces Behind the WTC's Creation, Part Three--The Rockefellers, Part Four--The Builders... You get the idea. Instead, the book, while it does offer several fascinating and provocative sections, they're spread out among so many other topics and diversions, that I lost my patience several times and had to put the book away for days at a time. The only section that was complete was the most effective, and that was the discussion about the now-lost Radio Row and the neighborhood around it. I would recommend the book just for that section, and for its studies of August Tobin and the Rockefeller clan. But I couldn't in good conscience give it a higher rating than the one I gave it. I was that divided.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points

Rating:
Summary: ASTONISHING & WONDERFUL
Review: 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.