I reviewed two books about New York City for the TLS. According to Jules Stewart’s Gotham Rising: New York in the 1930s, the Rockefeller Center tree is “one of New York’s most cherished Christmas traditions”. Native New Yorkers do indeed have a cherished Rockefeller Center holiday tradition: staying the hell away from it during the holidays. Strolling into its vicinity means ending up stuck on a packed pavement behind wonder-struck, slow-moving tourists. The impatient will wisely avoid, too, the meandering Gotham Rising... Read the rest here (requires login).