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Rating: 
Summary: Not A Tourist Guide?
Review: As a daily rider of the New York subway system, I find it dynamic and exciting piece of living history. This book, however, was not. It is a plodding academic treatment that focuses more on politics than the actual system. The pictures were too few. The maps were poorly realized and uninformative. As the system is still in place largely as it was decades ago, I would have liked references to the current line and station names instead of trying to guess or sit there with my own maps (something you can't do if reading while riding the subway). The subway system represents both a technological marvel and an instrument of great social change. Where is that book.
Rating: 
Summary: Wake me up!
Review: As a daily rider of the New York subway system, I find it dynamic and exciting piece of living history. This book, however, was not. It is a plodding academic treatment that focuses more on politics than the actual system. The pictures were too few. The maps were poorly realized and uninformative. As the system is still in place largely as it was decades ago, I would have liked references to the current line and station names instead of trying to guess or sit there with my own maps (something you can't do if reading while riding the subway). The subway system represents both a technological marvel and an instrument of great social change. Where is that book.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't cover everything, of course.
Review: As another reviewer mentioned, this isn't a tourist guide. There aren't that many maps, and the ones present do not show stops. Aside from the creation of new suburbs such as Jackson Heights, there isn't a whole lot of discussion of how the subways affected neighborhoods after they were built, especially after cars began to take over.The main point this book makes is how the combination of enforced low fares and the perception of rapid transit as a business rather than a public service caused the subways' decline. The beginning of the book describes some of the engineering problems involved in building subways in New York. I would have liked to have seen more of that, especially for later, non-IRT subways; diagrams of the terrain in question would have been interesting. Anyway, the book has to stop somewhere. For all that's left out, the discussion of people and politics, and of how things could have turned out differently, is fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Very nicely written.
Review: Hood demonstrates the power of doing ones Homework . Excellent reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not A Tourist Guide?
Review: In response to other reviewers: this book is not MEANT to be a tourist guide, it IS, however, an academic study, and a very good one indeed. For those who did not enjoy the book, because of it's lack of pictures, perhaps the problems lie with the reader rather than the author?
Rating:
Summary: a good political history
Review: my only criticism of this book is that 1/3 of it is of footnotes. when the book ended, there was too much reference material here. the jackson heights subway line info is interesting as it is not common to focus on an area outsideof manhattan as much. a good read. the poltical machinisms to get the work done are a worthy read.
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