Kingdom of New York: Knights, Knaves, Billionaires, and Beauties in the City of Big Shots

For the last two decades, The New York Observer has documented the platinum moment of New York, when the new elite rose and dominated society, media, and culture with an amusing arrogance that redefined the city as the power capital of the world. THE KINGDOM OF NEW YORK tells the jaunty, defining story of the Rise and Fall and Rise of New York City as personified by the protagonists and antagonists of the past 20 years, told in archival pastiche-a breathtaking sprint of headlines, great reporting, witty writing, and stories in fashion, ideas, real estate, style, media, movies, politics, sex, and finance.

All of New York's major players are here-Bill and Hillary, Giuliani, Bloomberg, Graydon Carter, Katie Couric, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Tina Fey, J. Lo, Seinfeld, Tina Brown, Anderson Cooper, et al-as well as essays by Cynthia Ozick, Gay Talese, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese. The book also includes work by some of the country's finest journalists, such as Candace Bushnell, Nick Paumgarten, Rachel Donadio, Alex Kuczynski, and Warren St. John, who spent their early careers at The Observer as it grew into one of the city's most influential papers. At once wickedly funny and astute, THE KINGDOM OF NEW YORK is a striking tribute to an unforgettable era in the city's history.