A History of New York

A History of New York (1809) is Washington Irving’s comic masterpiece, published under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker." Purporting to be a scholarly history of the Dutch colonial era in New York, the book is actually a brilliant satire that lampoons pompous historians, bumbling politicians, and the foibles of early American society.

Tracing the colony from its supposed founding through the reigns of three Dutch governors—the dreamy Wouter Van Twiller, the combative William the Testy, and the heroic Peter Stuyvesant—Irving created an enduring comic mythology of old New York. The book was an instant sensation and gave the city its lasting nickname "Knickerbocker," while establishing Irving as the first American writer to achieve international literary fame.