Why have Americans repeatedly imagined New York’s destruction? What do the fantasies of annihilation played out in virtually every form of literature and art mean? From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie Deep Impact, images of the city’s end have been prolific and diverse. Why have Americans repeatedly imagined New York’s destruction?

Sam Roberts New York Times 2008-10-19). Max Page has created an elegantly designed, well-proportioned survey of fictional portrayals of New York's destruction

Sam Roberts New York Times 2008-10-19). The City's End explores the imaginative and often profitable ways that filmmakers, writers, and artists have blown up, incinerated, drowned or depopulated New York City. Page thoughtfully analyzes why the city's ruination has been such an enduringly popular theme. Max Page has created an elegantly designed, well-proportioned survey of fictional portrayals of New York's destruction. I was initially drawn to this book because I was curious about the persistent presence of this kind of destruction in my own fantasy life: What was behind my apparent need to imaginatively destroy New York?

New York City looms large in the American imagination – as a magnet for hopes, fears and, intriguingly, apocalyptic fantasies

New York City looms large in the American imagination – as a magnet for hopes, fears and, intriguingly, apocalyptic fantasies. Max Page, Associate Professor of Architecture and History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explored how the Big Apple inspires Armageddon-like visions when he presented The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears and Premonitions of New York's Destruction at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Thursday, April 16.

Long before 9/11, visions of the destruction of New York City were a part of America's collective imagination. Max Page examines the destruction fantasies created by American writers and imagemakers at various stages of New York’s development. From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie Deep Impact, images of the city's end have been prolific and diverse. Seen in every medium from newspapers and films to novels, paintings, and computer software, such images, though disturbing, have been continuously popular.

Max Page, in his book The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies .

Max Page, in his book The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York's Destruction traces these destructions in this appealing book. Page explains he conceived the idea for this project in the days and weeks immediately following September 11, 2001. He was struck by the Janissary nature of the reaction that the attacks were both unimaginable and just like a movie. Page argues that the representations of New York's destruction are fraught with cultural and social concerns born of living in a major metropolis: Would foreigners overrun the city and sow the seeds of destruction?

Fears, and Premonitions of New York’s Destruction. While Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman shorts in 1941 are informed by urban fears of totalitarianism

Max Page, The City’s End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York’s Destruction. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008, 271 pp. 137 black-and-white illustrations, 24 colour plates. Although The City’s End is a very different book, embracing comics, computer games, film, painting, and literature, Page continues to insist on New York City’s exceptionalism, sometimes measured by degree, sometimes by kind. While Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman shorts in 1941 are informed by urban fears of totalitarianism. As an architectural historian, Page is particularly good on the havoc wrought on the material city.

Автор: Page Max Название: The City& End: Two Centuries of. .

From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie "Deep Impact," images of the city s end have been prolific and diverse

From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie "Deep Impact," images of the city s end have been prolific and diverse.

Indeed, the destruction of New York City has a prolific history in fiction .

Indeed, the destruction of New York City has a prolific history in fiction, revisiting which feels strangely cathartic in the face of this all-too-real disaster. In 2001, Amherst architecture and history professor Max Page began working on an exhibition proposal in partnership with the New York Historical Society, exploring all the gory, fantastical, fanciful ways in which New York City had been destroyed in fiction over the years. He wrapped up the proposal on September 10, 2001

Volume 36 special Issue 2: transnational urbanism in the americas. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008. 137 black and white illustrations.

Volume 36 special Issue 2: transnational urbanism in the americas. Douglas Tallack (a1). University of Leicester. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2009. Export citation Request permission.