The tour guide : walking and talking New York / Jonathan R. Wynn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wynn, Jonathan R.

Series:

Fieldwork encounters and discoveries

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tour guides (Persons)--New York (State)--New York.

Tour guides (Persons).

Tourism--Social aspects--New York (State)--New York.

Tourism.

Culture and tourism--New York (State)--New York.

Culture and tourism.

Tourism--Social aspects.

New York (N.Y.)--Description and travel.

New York (N.Y.).

National Book Committee.

New York (State)--New York.

Physical Description:

x, 226 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Summary:

New York City is a global tourist destination with a dizzying array of attractions throughout its five boroughs. The only problem is figuring out where to start- and that's where the city's tour guides come in. These guides are a vital part or New York's sidewalk culture, and as The Tour Guide reveals, the tours they offer are as fascinatingly diverse-and eccentric-as the city itself. Visitors can take tours that cover Manhattarn before the arrival of European settlers, the nineteenth-century Irish gangs of Five Points, line culinary traditions of Queens, the culture of Harlem, or even the surveillance cameras of Chelsea. And the guides are as intriguing as the subjects, we learn, as Jonathan R. Wynn explores the lives of the people behind the tours, introducing us to office workers looking for a diversion, unemployed actors honing their vocal skills, and struggling retirees searching for a second caning. Matching years of research with his own experiences as a guide, Wynn also lays bare the grueling process of acquiring an official license and offers a how-to guide to designing and leading a tour. Book jacket.

Contents:

City murals

Characters in the crowds, offering New York "like a native"

The work of walking

The walking guide, the city, and this book

The guiding world

From the Colossus of Rhodes to the Statue of Liberty

The rise of New York guiding

"There are many guides, and only one test"

Tensions

An untidy career

After the rush

"Deciding to make a go of it": getting into guiding

Working as a guide

Harmonizing work, and other rationales

Beyond the sidewalk

The guide-centered working ecology

Guiding relationships

Connecting with other guides

Wrangling, promoting, connecting: working with organizations

" . . . but they also use our name to market themselves"

Shticks of the trade

"We change our environment"

Routemaking

Storytelling tricks

"Walking is about your senses . . . it's about experiencing"

Entertaining identities

Working with an audience

Interacting with common tourist types

Negotiating edutainment

"They expect you as the product as well"

Situational identities and symbolic armor

Re-keying the city

Neighborhood narratives and the collective urban culture

"I don't own the neighborhood . . . "

A different kind of tourism: "teaching the stuff that tourists don't even know that they want to know"

"Learning 'the connect'": tours and street intellectualism

Urban alchemists

The transmutation of the city

"It's a charming story, and I couch it that way": shifting the cultural ground

"Do you want to come in and see my house?": spontaneity and the city

"Teach them how to dress": transforming the visitor into a local and a local into a tourist

Ghosts in the machine

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226919058

0226919056

9780226919065

0226919064

OCLC:

666235049