Social Disease

"New York is the body of our social disease: I can see the disease here, as elsewhere, but the body—concentrated—is the city, and to live in it does strange, secret, terrible things to one's perspective."
Waldo Frank, quoted in Independent Intellectuals in the United States, 1910-1945

Caught in a Machine

"The average New Yorker is caught in a Machine. He whirls along, he is dizzy, he is helpless. If he resists, the Machine will mangle him. If he does not resist, it will daze him first with its glittering reiteration, so that when the mangling comes he is past knowing."
Waldo Frank, Our America

Pioneer and Puritan

"Pioneer and Puritan and Industrialist have made New York. And like the sky, Joy has been shadowed out."
Waldo Frank, Our America

American Climax

Empire State Building

"America is the extraverted land. New York, its climax."
Waldo Frank, Our America

Resplendent City

Downtown Manhattan (Photo: Eneas de Troya)

"New York is a resplendent city. Its high white towers are arrows of will: its streets are the plowings of passionate desire. A lofty, arrogant, lustful city, beaten through by an iron rhythm."
Waldo Frank, Our America