num_pages: 312
description: The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood retail market for many different kinds of food it became the nations largest fish and seafood wholesaling center by the late nineteenth century. Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture the marketcelebrated by Joseph Mitchell in The New Yorker conjures up images of the bustling East River waterfront late-night fishmongering organized crime and a vanished working-class New York.This book is a lively and comprehensive history of the Fulton Fish Market from its founding in 1822 through its move to the Bronx in 2005. Jonathan H. Rees explores the markets workings and significance tracing the transportation retailing and consumption of fish. He tells the stories of the people and institutions that depended on the Fulton Fish Marketincluding fishermen retail stores restaurants and chefsand shows how the market affected what customers in New York and around the country ate. Rees examines transformations in food provisioning systems through the lens of a vital distribution point arguing that the markets wholesale dealers were innovative businessmen who adapted to technological change in a dynamic industry. He also explains how changes in the urban landscape and economy affected the history of the market and the surrounding neighborhood.Bringing together economic technological urban culinary and environmental history this book demonstrates how the Fulton Fish Market shaped American cuisine commerce and culture.
language: English
title: The Fulton Fish Market: A History
publisher: Columbia University Press