From the Big Apple to Niagara Falls, the state of New York has always had enormous fascination for Americans. From the Empire State have come major influences on almost every aspect of American life. Particularly advantageous landforms and waterways enabled the explorers and settlers and entrepreneurs of early New York to move ahead of others, and the strategic location of New York City with its outstanding harbor also helped the state reach dominance. But as the author of this book shows, almost from the beginning on the tip of Manhattan Island, New York has benefited from the varied talents of successive influxes of diverse ethnic and racial groups. In conflict though they often were, they have also been a source of hte state's cultural richness and economic strength.