“New York: A Documentary Film,” which aired on the Public Broadcasting Service in five two-hour installments this past November,[1] marks the convergence of two trends. One is the growing cottage industry of the historiography of New York City. It is an industry that received impetus from the 1998 centennial of the consolidation of Greater New York, the official hoopla surrounding which prompted many an academic and commercial press to beef up its New York offerings. The second trend is the type of television documentary pioneered by the brothers Ken and Ric Burns, of which the pacesetting example was their collaborative effort of nine years ago, “The Civil War,” which appeared, as do all their works, on PBS. Since “The Civil War,” the brothers have gone their separate ways, though their styles are remarkably similar. Ken Burns gave us “Baseball” and a series on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, ...

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