In the early nineteenth century, residents of New York City relied primarily on public markets to obtain beef and other food supplies. However, in 1843, the city ended the public markets’ monopoly on beef sales, leading to a rapid privatization of food provisioning in the city. In Feeding Gotham, Baics explores the rise and fall of these markets, concluding that their demise led to deteriorating food access for lower income New Yorkers.
Baics draws from a wide variety of sources and techniques to tell this story. In one chapter, he relies on the diaries of Evert Bancker, Jr., a state politician, and banker John Pintard to analyze the consumption patterns of New Yorkers during the 1820s and 1830s. Historians have long mined Pintard’s diary for his insights about notable political and social developments, but few of them have utilized it to capture the rhythms of daily life. Pintard and,...