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Loading... Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (original 1991; edition 1992)by Luc Sante (Author)It took me much longer than it should have to finish this book, because I was constantly putting it down to look up people on Wikipedia or to track down referenced books on Project Gutenberg or Archive.org. Or to look at locations on Google Maps to see what they look like now. Sante's book, published in 1992, may not seem quite as interesting now, since much of what he covered has been written about in other books or on various internet sites--but it remains a well-written, engaging look at the "low life" of New York City from Colonial times to World War I. The focus, more often than not, is on the Bowery and its memorable characters and crimes. At times, the parade of personalities gets to be a bit tedious and hard to keep track of. I think the book might have benefited from a more chronological order rather than thematic order--but this is a small quibble. Sante's treatment of his subjects and his sources is exemplary throughout. He presents everything, no matter how awful or peculiar, in an objective manner with only unobtrusive editorializing. After reading this book, you'll want to wander the backstreets of Lower Manhattan for hours on end. And you'll be happy you aren't doing it 125 years ago! A generally good book, with a handful of flaws. Sante, in this volume, gives an oversight of what New York City was like from roughly the 1830s to the end of World War I, going through various aspects of life. A lot of this is familiar territory (see below), but it is written very engagingly, and is a pleasure to read. There's also a very good selection of illustrations, something that many books in this field ignore. I think one of the major flaws of the book (and why I don't give it five stars) is that Sante does a miserable job of citing his sources. For example, there's material in the book that I know was taken from "Great Riots of New York," but that book isn't even cited. The bibliography is something of a joke, as well. It's also fairly clear that Sante is leaning heavily on Herbert Asbury's famous "Gangs of New York." A very good book, and a fun read, but by no means groundbreaking. This is a fascinating tour of New York's Bowery which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a hotbed of gambling, prostitution, and nefarious cons working every conceivable angle on the city's unsuspecting and credulous. It is a breathtaking and enormously entertaining catalog of roguery, well written and researched, that left this reader filled with admiration. Highly recommended. This is a lively, informative, and fun look at the underside of downtown New York City from approximately 1840 to 1920, chock full of gangs, corrupt politicians and policemen, bars, drugs, prostitutes, theaters of varying degrees of nonrespectablility, graft, crime, cons, would-be reformers, and more. Sante combines detailed research, including many quotes from writers and songs of the period, with compassion for the lack of choices facing poor people and a feeling for the continuity between then and now. Both the people and the gangs had fabulous nicknames: one of my favorites was the Dead Rabbits gang, "dead" being slang for "best" and "rabbit' for "tough guy." On the other hand, we continue to use a lot of the slang that originated then: Sante cites blarney, kicking the bucket, pal, and swag, among others. I find New York City history endlessly fascinating, and one of the things that most intrigued me about this book was that the author and I both lived on the old lower east side (renamed by the real estate business as the East Village and Alphabet City and now hopelessly gentrified, largely by the expansion of NYU) in the late 70s and the 80s, a time when change was beginning there. He explains that living there, among the old tenements, got him interested in the less well known history of the area. Sante doesn't dwell of the "plus ça change" aspects of the stories he tells, and in fact he is so immersed in the details of the period they aren't obvious, and yet . . . we still have poor people, criminals, corruption, theater, bars, drugs, prostitutes, gangs and would-be reformers. The form may change, technology may intervene, but human nature and social realities are still with us. I am a huge fan of historical writing, especially social history. I care about the broader political context that informs most history, but I also really want to know about the little things, too - what people ate, what they were wearing, what they did for fun, how they lived day-to-day. This book will give a sense of all of that (plus the politics) & more. Luc Sante was an advisor on the movie, The Gangs of New York, & if you keep the way that movie looked in your head you might get a sense of the New York he is writing about. Sante explores Manhattan in four aspects from 1840 to 1919 - Topography, vice & entertainment, law & order, & revolt & idealism. Jammed into these four aspects are stories of classic New York characters like Boss Tweed & Butcher Poole, but also many less well-known people like Bald Jack Rose & Leftie Louie. Sante argues that New York is all about the New & tends to ignore its history, but that its ghosts are drifting there - just below the surface. This book captures these ghosts & makes them visible to the reader through clear prose & fascinating stories. This is an excellent example of what good writing & interesting social history can be to a reader. Fascinating & wonderful & you should go read it right now. |
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