New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time

In New York Intellect, Thomas Bender provides a guide to the history of intellectual life in America's cultural capital. He takes it through three phases which are based on the preoccupations of the city's intelligentsia during different periods: first, a city in which cultural institutions brought together an intellectual elite, next, a city with an explicitly literary orientation, and finally, the international capital of culture with an academic orientation. For students of cultural, intellectual, and/or urban history (which I am) this is essential reading. It's a good read for anyone interested in the history of New York City or the intellectual life of a city in general.