Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New YorkMacmillan + ORM, 8 mar. 2016 - 584 pagini The classic social history of corruption and vice in nineteenth-century NYC: “A cacophonous poem of democracy and greed, like the streets of New York themselves” (John Vernon, Los Angeles Times Book Review). Lucy Sante’s Low Life is a portrait of America’s greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city’s slums; the teeming streets—scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape. Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era’s opportunities for vice and entertainment—theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling and prostitution; Part Three investigates the forces of law and order which did and didn’t work to contain the illegalities; Part Four counterposes the city’s tides of revolt and idealism against the city as it actually was. Low Life is one of the most provocative books about urban life ever written—an evocation of the mythology of the quintessential modern metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York’s past but about the present and future of all cities. |
Din interiorul cărții
Pagina
... museum to the video-game arcade and the movie theater specializing in car-chase and slasher films, many of the enticements have remained constant: blood, fire, speed, and flesh . The categories can be seen as corresponding to.
... museum to the video-game arcade and the movie theater specializing in car-chase and slasher films, many of the enticements have remained constant: blood, fire, speed, and flesh . The categories can be seen as corresponding to.
Pagina
... Fires were a common event , and some were cataclysmic , such as the Great Fire of the winter of 1835 , which decimated a huge stretch of the commercial district around Wall Street . The constantly altering cityscape perforce encouraged ...
... Fires were a common event , and some were cataclysmic , such as the Great Fire of the winter of 1835 , which decimated a huge stretch of the commercial district around Wall Street . The constantly altering cityscape perforce encouraged ...
Pagina
... fire a shotgun in any direction without hitting an honest man . A story of the nineties had it that at Broadway and Forty- second someone yelled , “ There's the man who stole my watch ! " whereupon twelve men ran off . Broadway's ...
... fire a shotgun in any direction without hitting an honest man . A story of the nineties had it that at Broadway and Forty- second someone yelled , “ There's the man who stole my watch ! " whereupon twelve men ran off . Broadway's ...
Pagina
... gangland to skid row . In any case , until fairly recently , the Bowery always possessed the greatest number of groggeries , flophouses , clip joints , brothels , fire sales , rigged auctions , pawnbrokers , dime museums ,
... gangland to skid row . In any case , until fairly recently , the Bowery always possessed the greatest number of groggeries , flophouses , clip joints , brothels , fire sales , rigged auctions , pawnbrokers , dime museums ,
Pagina
... fire companies , which were basically gangs equipped with fire engines . Their politics were usually Democratic , running the gamut from the radicals of the 1820s to various species of Tammany Hall shoulder - hitters and ward heelers ...
... fire companies , which were basically gangs equipped with fire engines . Their politics were usually Democratic , running the gamut from the radicals of the 1820s to various species of Tammany Hall shoulder - hitters and ward heelers ...
Termeni și expresii frecvente
American arrested became began blocks bohemian Bowery Boys boxes Broadway Brooklyn Brown Brothers buildings called cards Charles Chatham Chatham Square Chinatown Chinese Chuck Connors city's Civil Club Connors cops crowd dance Dead Rabbits decades district dives dollar door drink early East Side established eventually featured fight fire Five Points floor Fourteenth Street gambler gambling gangs gangsters George girls Greenwich Village Harlem Hell's Kitchen Hotel houses hundred Irish Island Jack Jacob Riis John killed known later Lexow Committee lived lotteries Lower East Side Manhattan Market Mock Duck Morrissey movie murder Museum neighborhood night nineteenth century opened opium P. T. Barnum Park Parkhurst Photograph play police political popular prostitutes raided reform riots River rooms saloon slums sort Square stage Tammany Hall Tenderloin tenements thieves Third Avenue turn Tweed uptown vice Ward West Whyos William women York City