The Timescape exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York encaptured New York City’s rich history in a brief twenty-one minutes touching upon its earliest settlers and how they cultivated the land to the 80s crack epidemic and through modern times. What the exhibit failed to encapture was the rich, diverse groups of people that made up the city’s population and the city’s roots of tolerance. In Russell Shorto’s The Island at the Center of the World, Shorto makes up for the exhibit—he traces the roots of New York City’s diverse past through the use of accounts of historical figures through interpretations of source documents, photos, and paintings. What I found the most interesting in Shorto’s writings was the involvement of the English during the city’s early beginnings. I felt as though the English gave un an opportunity to discover something new by their own, gave this to the Dutch and when the Dutch were able to capitalize, the English took it back, thus proving Shorto’s point in the epilogue that “history is written by the winners.”

Shorto begins with telling the story about Henry Hudson’s explorations to find a faster route to Asia for trade, Hudson’s failures, and then his eventual partnership with the Dutch East Indian Trading Company that proved to be fruitful. From then on, the Dutch settled on the land that Hudson discovered and soon transformed it to an important and successful trading post. With them, the Dutch brought their tolerance and managed to live, for the most part, peacefully with their neighbors and other cultures. The Dutch colony’s promise of tolerance and its economic success was very attractive to those who were looking to move away from their oppressive European counterparts. The Dutch’s success was short-lived, however, as soon the English came knocking on the city’s door, ready for reclamation. When the city finally fell to the English, it was an interesting note that the English allowed the city to operate as it was with a few exceptions. The city’s official name changed into something more English to reflect its new owners, but save for a few other changes, the English kept operations running to ensure the city’s already proven economic profit.

Through the shift of power between the Dutch and the English, historical documents were shuffled, displaced, lost, and ruined. Whatever that was salvaged only painted pieces of the puzzle of the history of the city for its future citizens. History is written by the winners and New York is an example of that, because of the few changes the English made to the city when they took over. The English changed the city’s names to reflect a more English name, while at the same time preserving its economic success, thus almost “claiming” the colony’s success. I believe that the new English rulers did little to preserve the Dutch history of the colony, and is therefore why I believe that many people often forget the roots of diversity in New York City.