ISBN: 0374528993 9780374528997

Category: History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)

Page count: 432

<p><b>“A cacophonous poem of democracy and greed, like the streets of New York themselves.” <br> </b><b>―John Vernon, Los Angeles Times Book Review</b><br><br><b><br>Lucy Sante's <i>Low Life </i>is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. </b><br><br>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.<br><br><i>Low Life </i>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.<br><br><i>Low Life</i> provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was actually like in its salad days. But it's more than simply a book about New York. It's 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.</p>