Book Review: HAMILTON HEIGHTS and SUGAR HILL: Alexander Hamilton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries by Davida Siwisa James

HAMILTON HEIGHTS and SUGAR HILL: Alexander Hamilton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries
by Davida Siwisa James  @DeeSiwisa
Fordham University Press: Empire State Editions
Nonfiction; 432 pages; 126 illustrations: PUBLICATION DATE: April 2, 2024
ISBN-13:   978-1531506148
REFERRAL IN AALBC
https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10792-hamilton-heights-and-sugar-hill-book-review-request/

MY REVIEW

"Indeed, the average Harlemite's impression of white folk, democracy and life in general is rather bad. Naturally if you live on nice, tree lined, quiet convent avenue, even though you are colored, it would never occur to you to riot or break windows." Langston Hughes

Davida Siwisa James unbiased, temporally complete history book achieves three goals of equal value. One, to be as definitive a history book to the Hamilton Heights or Sugar Hill sections of Harlem. No single book has the length to cover the complete history of Harlem, that will demand an encyclopedia which reading this book proves. Two, to explain through the history of said regions in Harlem how Harlem has heritages of blemished grandeurs that includes all people from the Native American populace before European colonies to the time of this prose in the Gregorian year two thousand and twenty-four. Said heritages warrant preservation that can become a living example of multiracial coexistence in the USA if implemented equal to all. Three, to explain how the negativities: negative biases from whites to non-whites, negative biases from the financially wealthy of any phenotype to the financially poor of any phenotype, negative bias from New York City in ruling/governing/administering Harlem, created a constancy of: lies, malfunctions, pains that have always hindered the reach of grandeurs born in Harlem but have not stymied the potential of Harlem. Said potential of Harlem is to be the truest example of peaceful positive productive life for pan-individuals in the declaration that many in humanity cling to as a hope. Siwisa, a Harlemite, achieves all three intricate, modernly purposeful, goals.

She uses a straightforward temporal sequence, as chapters, from the time of the Lenape, long gone outside name places, to the time of New York City's first Black Mayor, Harlemite David Dinkins. Unlike most historians, who try to provide a history to a place from its past to modernity, she was able to communicate with residents long gone or residents relatively new, while including her own life, to support the temporal width of her work. Reading this book, you can tell Siwisa loves Harlem but isn't willing to accept a great memory. She wants to fight against the literary plus nonliterary challenges the region has to live with. 

I, a Harlemite, was unaware that Harlem was to be named Lancaster by the British empire on winning New Amsterdam and turning it into New York. But from the time of New Amsterdam onward, which the book conveys through Harlemites  named Hamilton/Jumel/Deforest/Hughes/Williams/Powell jr./Spollen, the region has constantly been a chess piece for New York City and a harbor for the heart of New York City's culture of integration. If you don't know about Harlem, this book is a great starting point for it will create a proper framework to comprehending the region which has, sadly, a heritage of being mislabeled or mis-defined or misrepresented, even when mostly white before the New Negro Movement. If you know about Harlem, you already know Harlem has a vast history, that involves the entire racial landscape of the USA. But you will learn many new things about Harlem through the Hamilton Heights or Sugar Hill regions, which are the main subject of the book. 

The entire history in the book is supported evenly by photographic or illustrative evidence, which is mandatory in modern times while also serving as undeniable proof for naysayers to Harlem's various periods of grandeur in its history. Harlem's history is as bright as the light off the skyscrapers to its south, while the perception of it is plagued by a shadow that was and is constructed or maintained by those in or out of Harlem. Let this book take down the blinds page by page.