MHC history professor Daniel Czitrom
served as a consultant for New York: A Documentary Film, a new PBS
series devoted to the city that never sleeps. Czitrom grew up in New
York and has made the city a focus of his research.
For those familiar with Daniel
Czitrom's classes on New York-related topics and his scholarly work
and background, it comes as no surprise that the MHC history
professor's expertise and personal connection to New York City have
been mined for the new PBS series devoted to the city that never
sleeps.
Premiering in November,
New York: A
Documentary Film chronicles the grit, glitz, and
glamour of the Big Apple since 1609 and boasts a host of famous New
Yorkers and distinguished historians. The six-episode series is
directed by Ric Burns, who coproduced the landmark series
The Civil
War with his brother
Ken. Czitrom's participation in the PBS blockbuster has ranged from
involvement in planning sessions and script critiquing to on-camera
interviews and "rough-cut" feedback sessions.
Tune in for New York beginning Sunday, November 14. It
continues nightly through Thursday, November 18, from 9 to 11 pm on
local PBS affiliate Channel 57. MHC's own New York historian will
make appearances in episodes two through five. Episode six will air
in 2000.
The author of several published
articles on the city, Czitrom is currently at work on a book on
turn-of-the-century New York and is completing a project on the
influential New York photographer and reformer Jacob Riis. His
connection with New York is personal, as well as professional--he
grew up in the Bronx and is a graduate of the Bronx High School of
Science. In addition, after receiving his Ph.D. in history in 1979,
Czitrom spent about a year and a half driving a cab in New York and
entered briefly, "but not briefly enough," he says, into a
management-trainee position on Wall Street. Even Czitrom's interest
in New York's ongoing story of immigration stems from a personal
link--his mother arrived in New York from Russia in 1924 at the age
of three.
Czitrom finds much merit in
New
York's premise--that
this city and its history are the story of America. "I think that
this is a very shrewd claim, as it turns on its head the common
notion that New York isn't America," says Czitrom. Burns illuminates
and brings to the fore some of the major themes of United States
history: capitalism and democracy; immigration and diversity; the
tension between money-making and government intervention in the
workplace and public life; and technology (the steamship, the
building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and communications).
Czitrom worked along with a handful of
historians collaboratively with Burns, but he is also quick to stress
the point that, despite the impressive array of experts, the film is
ultimately Ric Burns's. Serving as the filmmaker's interview subject,
Czitrom explains, "I had two very long interviews with Ric. He was
very skillful at drawing out the best material that I had to
share--the right stories, and the most telling quotes to best
illustrate a point."
Czitrom's interviews focused on New
York during the late nineteenth century, with topics ranging from the
life of the working class and poor, politics, Tammany Hall and the
development of New York's vice economy. He also talked at length
about the city's evolution into the great media center that it is
today. Of all of his consulting tasks, Czitrom most enjoyed the
screening of rough cuts taken from early versions of the film. These
were give-and-take sessions in New York that allowed the historians,
writers, and Burns the opportunity to refine the film's structure,
script, and pace.
Czitrom's work on the film also
included writing a chapter in New York: An Illustrated
History, a coffee
table book (published this month by Knopf) that serves as a companion
piece to the TV series. Czitrom's essay "The Secrets of the Great
City" discusses New York's underside during the last half of
nineteenth century. The book is but one of the film's many elaborate
add-ons, which include online features, a CD soundtrack, and a
teacher's resource guide.
For those on campus who want to hear
what Czitrom has to say in person about New York, you can choose from
three classes that he teaches with New York themes: Reading
The New York
Times; a seminar on
New York City, Capital of the Twentieth Century; and American Media
History.