It was situated on a perfect natural harbour at the mouth of a great river leading into a huge new land. Manhattan Island was to grow into the most powerful city in the most powerful country in the world. THE ISLAND AT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD returns to the origins of New York's extraordinary history. It tells how a wilderness populated only by wolves and native tribes became the melting pot from which developed the free-trade, multi-cultural and upwardly-mobile spirit of New York that in turn would shape the whole American nation.