644 The Journal of American History September 2004

is left with the impression that “low diplo- how the meaning of social spaces changes. We macy” and “high diplomacy” are uncon- are treated to the spectacle of proto-neighbor- nected; in reality, however, they are mutually hoods that dissolve and reform according to interactive and should be analyzed as two sides elitist dictates (and to the need to distance the of the same coin. wealthy from the poor). In Homberger’s hand, is a movable tableau, an Yoneyuki Sugita examination of material culture (houses, ho- Osaka University of Foreign Studies tels, churches—even fashions and ballroom Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/91/2/644/866225 by guest on 27 September 2021 Osaka, Japan spaces) that constantly shifts. In front of this complex backdrop, a tale of the city’s aristoc- Mrs. Astor’s New York: Money and Social Power racy unfolds, “America’s first celebrity mar- in a Gilded Age. By Eric Homberger. (New tyrs” (p. 12). Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. xiv, 330 “Society” at this time was more a process pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-300-09501-5.) than an institution, notes Homberger (p. 27). It was Ward McAllister, the arbiter of fashion, It is somewhat surprising that one of the best who eventually solidified social discrimination observers of the New York scene is a professor and exclusivity. Mrs. Astor’s New York is the at the University of East Anglia in England. In saga of McAllister’s tactics (the Patriarchs, the fact, Eric Homberger, author of Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred), the pull between new wealth New York, has produced The Historical Atlas of and social power, and the finale of Mrs. Wil- (1994), an illustrated history liam Astor’s ascendancy as professional hostess that considers Benevolent Culture, Fifth Ave- by 1897. It is also a saga of the currents that nue, Abstract Expressionists, skyscrapers, and shattered this remarkable society. The last mass transit all part of the kaleidoscope; New chapter deals with “Being Mrs. Astor” and York City: A Cultural and Literary Companion cleverly begins with her end, a nervous break- (2003), a survey of places in the city—Parks, down in 1906. A confused Mrs. Astor, plan- Harlem, Broadway, etc.—that includes the ning nonexistent balls, seemed the symbolic voices of Stephen Crane, Allen Ginsberg, and icon of Homberger’s final vision. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; and Scenes from the Suffice it to say, I recommend this book to Life of a City: Corruption and Conscience in historians as one example of cultural history Old New York (1994), which focuses on the that is sophisticated, great reading, and bril- underside of the urban scene (the hardened liantly conceived. underworld, the abortionist Madame Restell, “Slippery Dick” Connolly) and the triumph of Mary W. Blanchard Conscience in the building of Central Park. Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Such free-ranging and eclectic thinking is part New Brunswick, New Jersey of Homberger’s charm. One can only marvel at Homberger’s expertise: he also writes on the The Gilded Age Press, 1865–1900. By Ted radical tradition (John Reed and the like), es- Curtis Smythe. (Westport: Praeger, 2003. xii, pionage (spy fiction and John le Carré), Jewish 240 pp. $79.95, ISBN 0-313-30080-1.) culture, and photography, not to mention dabbling in Ezra Pound, Anglo-American po- The late nineteenth century was pivotal for etry, and biography. Thus we might assume journalism in the . It was a time that Mrs. Astor’s New York is not the usual so- of experimentation, innovation, and the com- cial dalliance one might have expected from mercialization of the mainstream American the title. press. Ted Curtis Smythe reviews the sweep We are, in fact, in the hands of a cultural and significance of those years in The Gilded archaeologist. Homberger pursued available Age Press, 1865–1900, the research for which, memoirs, period literature, and multitudes of he says, was “conducted over twenty years” (p. newspapers and journals. In short, his data is xi). impeccable and original. Homberger roots his Such commitment often shows. Smythe city and his age in specific locales, watching demonstrates thorough familiarity with the