Sam Roberts from The New York Times discusses Pamela Hanlon’s new book, A Worldly Affair: New York, the United Nations, and the Story Behind Their Unlikely Bond, published by Fordham University Press:

“When the World Called for a Capital”, by Sam Roberts, The New York Times 

September 14, 2017

 “In the late 18th century, the national capital was temporarily transplanted from New

A Worldly Affair, by Pamela Hanlon, available now from Fordham University Press

York City back to Philadelphia, which unleashed New York from the federal bureaucracy to become the capital of capital.

Around the same time, New York legislators sought a state capital that would not only be more centrally located, but also sufficiently insulated from downstate political influence. The consequences of that shift were profound: More than two centuries later, New York City officials need Albany’s permission to levy taxes for mass transit and even to install more traffic cameras to catch drivers who speed through red lights.

Despite Philadelphia and Albany stealing its thunder, however, New York managed to become the global capital by the mid-20th century.

As the city prepares for its annual United Nations General Assembly gridlock this month, Pamela Hanlon makes the case that the relationship between New York and the world has still worked out pretty well.

In “A Worldly Affair: New York, the United Nations and the Story Behind Their Unlikely Bond,” Ms. Hanlon recalls the city’s mid-1940s struggle to become the U.N.’s headquarters site…”

Read the full article here.