In 1945, New York City stood at the pinnacle of its cultural & economic power. Never again would the city possess the unique mixture of innocence & sophistication, romance & formality, generosity & confidence which characterized it in this moment of triumph. In ” Manhattan `45”, acclaimed travel writer & historian Jan Morris evokes the city in all its romantic grandeur. From its beguilingly idiosyncratic architectural style to its unmistakable slang, post-War New York springs to life through Morris` brisk, affectionate prose. Morris visits Wall Street, Harlem, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, & the Lower East Side. She rides the trollies, the El, the Hudson River ferries, & the Twentieth Century Limited. She dines at Schrafft`s & Le Pavillon, drinks ale at Mc Sorley`s Saloon, sips Manhattans at the Manhattan Club, & spots celebrities at El Morocco. She meets Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, Leo Durocher, I.B. Singer, & Dizzy Gillespie. & she tours the tenements of Hell`s Kitchen & the Gashouse district, as well as the Foundling Hospital where the crushing realities of poverty belie the unchallenged exuberance of the age. Taking into account both Social Register & slum, ” Manhattan `45” celebrates New York`s Golden Age as a place where, for one unrepeatable moment in history, anything seemed possible.