The Guest List

From the 1920s to the early 1960s, as Mordden (Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business) shows us, Manhattan set the nation's cultural tone. In this rollicking, chatty, gossipy book, he traces the evolution of what he calls "New Yorkism," which he notes arose in part as previously marginalized groups in the city—women, gay men, and Irish and Jewish immigrants, among others—gained power through both politics and the arts, giving themselves and New York a national identity. In New York you could be somebody even if your parents weren't, provided you had talent or, failing that, flair or bluster! Mordden's knowledge is encyclopedic—he had published a lot on Broadway musicals and on the city's gay culture—yet little of what he presents here is new. What differentiates this title from others is its dishy, conspiratorial tone, and his delight in the audacious anecdote.