Scott G. Sherman

In a series of award-winning cover stories for The Nation magazine, investigative reporter Scott Sherman was the first reporter to cast doubt on the New York Public Library's controversial £350 renovation plan. He found the story about a beloved library caught in the crosshairs of real estate, power and the people's interests. Here Sherman presents a new investigation, a news-breaking account of the New York Public Library's entanglements with money, power and big real estate.

Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library

Patience and Fortitude

Scott Sherman

A riveting investigation of a beloved library caught in the crosshairs of real estate, power, and the people’s interests—by the reporter who broke the story In a series of cover stories for The Nation magazine, journalist Scott Sherman uncovered the ways in which Wall Street logic almost took down one of New York City’s most beloved and iconic institutions: the New York Public Library. In the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis, the library’s leaders forged an audacious plan to sell off multiple branch libraries, mutilate a historic building, and send millions of books to a storage facility in New Jersey. Scholars, researchers, and readers would be out of luck, but real estate developers and New York’s Mayor Bloomberg would get what they wanted. But when the story broke, the people fought back, as famous writers, professors, and citizens’ groups came together to defend a national treasure. Rich with revealing interviews with key figures, Patience and Fortitude is at once a hugely readable history of the library’s secret plans, and a stirring account of a rare triumph against the forces of money and power.

Patty Pforte

A great read!

A gripping read that poses important questions on the evolution in research and especially for libraries built for a broad public good but barely funded.

Patience and Fortitude Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library

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