Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Book

The bottom line: this book was written by a pompous academic for other pompous academics. I feel his personal writing philosopy is why use an accessible word when an obscure on that you cannot always even find in a dictionary would work. His tone is pompous, his style is dull. This was a required text for a grad school course on the evolution of the U.S. city, and every last member of this class hated the text. I love books, and I love words, especially obscure and underused ones, but this book takes the concept beyond too far. I'd never condone burning a book, but this one pushes my convictions