I read this too, and perhaps this isn’t a popular opinion given how people revere this book, but I found it to be 5x longer than it needed to be for the average reader not immersed in NYC from that period. The number of meetings and characters introduced felt unnecessary. I get that he is a historian trying to recreate the record of what happened and did so masterfully, but for the vast majority of readers I think it would be improved to have a “digest” version.