"How can you review a book when all you want to do is look up just one more item, check out just one more fact, and answer just one more question? This compendium, 13 years in the making, is the first work ever to try to encompass the wonder that is New York City and does so with remarkable success. Edited by academic [Kenneth] Jackson, it supplies information on people, places, events, and experiences, from prehistory to today, along with illustrations and maps, charts, and tables. Thus, this reviewer could find the Brooklyn public high school she attended; the Manhattan private schools to which she sent her children; a description of alternate side parking (a particularly New York phenomenon); the inception of one-way traffic; the New York Giants, baseball and football teams; Frank Costello and Philip Roth; the Lambs Club and the egg cream. A dictionary arrangement with uppercase cross-references makes it simple to use, the editorial board of outstanding scholars makes it reliable, and the subject makes it irresistible. A reference work for all natives, visitors, or the simply curious.... A word of caution: this book can be addicting."—Library Journal