by William Meyers (Author), Nicole Gelinas (Afterword by), William Meyers (Photographer)
In honor of America's 250th anniversary, photographer William Meyers presents a sweeping visual record of civic life--twenty-five years of photographs that capture how ordinary Americans show up for one another, and for the country itself.
Over the past 250 years, the United States has been shaped by an evolving and often contested civic landscape, marked by debate, protest, elections, and acts of public service and neighborliness. While this history includes profound injustices and divisions, it also reflects an ongoing engagement with the ideals of democracy, an aspiration that continues to take form through everyday participation in public life. In this poignant collection of photographs, William Meyers offers a sweeping, twenty-five year visual record of New York City as a microcosm of America, capturing the everyday acts of civic engagement, public service, and neighborly support that sustain the democratic fabric of the nation. Structured around seven thematic chapters--Elections, Governance, Demonstrations, Press, Talk, Social Capital, and Civic Markers--Civics captures the full spectrum of engagement, from formal political processes and public service to volunteer work, protests, charitable acts, and neighborhood interactions, revealing the quiet, everyday labor that keeps democracy alive. A gorgeous keepsake volume with an afterword by the celebrated journalist Nicole Gelinas, Civics is a visually striking reminder of the ordinary acts that sustain democratic life in moments of heightened political and social tensions.Author Biography
William Meyers has had his photographs exhibited in museums in America and Europe, as well as in group and solo gallery exhibitions. The New York Public Library holds the eighty-six prints reproduced in his book Outer Boroughs: New York Beyond Manhattan. Other prints are in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York and The New York Historical, as well as in private collections. Several pictures are on permanent display in cultural institutions. Meyers also writes on photography for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.
Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a contributing writer at The New York Times, the New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She writes on urban policy and politics, covering a diverse range of topics, such as transportation, public safety, infrastructure, and public finance. Gelinas is the author of Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back its Streets from the Car, winner of the 2025 Gotham Book Prize.
Number of Pages: 240
Publication Date: July 28, 2026
