2026 LaGuardia Book Prize: When the City Stops by Robert W. Snyder

The recipient of the annual Fiorello LaGuardia Book Prize is Manhattan Borough historian Robert W. Snyder for his work: “When the City Stopped: Stories from New York’s Essential Workers.

The LaGuardia Book Prize, in its third year, recognizes an exceptional work of scholarship that utilizes collections from the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, a repository of New York City history. Last year’s award went to Columbia University historian Kim Phillips-Fein for her book Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics.

“LaGuardia Community College is delighted to honor the historian Robert W. Snyder for his groundbreaking work on how New Yorkers coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Meticulously researched, drawing from resources at LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, When the City Stopped illuminates the social and political issues surrounding the initial onslaught of the disease and how New Yorkers endured. “The social issues brought forth by the disease changed the way the city is governed. It also permanently transformed CUNY,” said President Kenneth Adams. “Six years since the initial COVID-19 outbreak, as we grapple with other issues of social health and diminished vaccine guidelines from the Center for Disease Control, When the City Stopped couldn’t be timelier.”

LaGuardia and Wagner Archives established the Fiorello LaGuardia Book Prize in 2024. Soraya Ciego-Lemur, Deputy Director of LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, said since the 1980s the Archives has been a major research center for scholars doing work on New York City history.

“Many books have been written based on our rich collections. We decided that it was time to recognize stellar works that have come out of the Archives,” Ciego-Lemur said. “When the City Stopped by Robert W. Snyder was an obvious choice. He used the work of our students as they researched, compiled, and documented their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic in their work Portraits of an Epicenter,” said Soraya Ciego-Lemur, Deputy Director of LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.

“When the City Stopped became an instant classic when it was published last year, recognized by scholars as a distinguished work on how the city learned to survive and commune,” said Molly Rosner, Ph.D., Director of Public History Programs at LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. “Snyder sheds light on the rise of the Black Lives Matter, Anti-Asian hate violence, and anti-vaccination mivements in New York City.” It was a pivotal moment in the City’s history and had ramifications on the health and social policy.

Each year the recipient of the Fiorello LaGuardia Book Prize will deliver a talk at LaGuardia. On April 23 in the C-building, Room 760 at 12:30 p.m., Snyder will be in conversation with Rosner. The event will incorporate LaGuardia students studying public health policyas well as showcase resources from the Archives. The talk is free and open to the public.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher LaGuardia and Wagner Archives