Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
By:
Luc Sante
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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
Luc 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 provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was actually like in its salad days. But it's more than simpy 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 metropplois, which has much to say not only about New York's past but about the present and future of all cities.
Description:
There are very few classics in the field of pop culture--the academic stuff tends to be too dry and the fun stuff is too quickly dated. This book by Luc Sante is the exception--in fluid prose liberally sprinkled with astute metaphors, Sante tells the story of New York's Lower East Side, circa 1840-1920. The personal histories of criminals, prostitutes, losers, and swindlers bring to life the social and statistical history that the author has meticulously researched. Not limiting himself to the usual sources, Sante finds his history in old copies of Police Gazette as well as actual police, fire, and social service records. Above all, what really makes this book work is the writing, which brings to life a culture of the streets that continues to form a silent influence on our contemporary popular culture.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Boys and Girls Together, Me and Mamie O'Rourke - This is a review of an informal history of New York's Lower East Side
covering the time from roughly 1840-1920.
"Low Life: Lures and snares of Old New York" was written by Luc Sante
and originally published by Vintage Books in 1991. " Low Life" is an
influential work, I have seen it cited as a reference point in many
articles and used as such in Martin Scorsese's film THE GANGS OF NEW YORK.
Sante offers short bios of many characters and notable figures
that made the area what it was and uses not just the regular sources
for his facts but many of the raffish sagas and legends that were printed
in such as The Police Gazzette among others.
I think the best way to give the the reader the genuine flavor of this
excellent book would be just to list the chapter titles which is what I'm
doing now:
PART 1. Landscape
I. The Body
II. Home.
III. The Street.
PART 2 Sporting Life
1. The Lights
II Saloon culture
III Hop
IV Chance
V The Lost Sisterhood.
PART 3 The Arm
I Gangland
II Coppers
III The Tiger
IV Sainthood
V Rubberneckers.
PART 4 The Invisible City
L Orphans.
II The Drift
III Bohemia
IV Carnival
V Night.
Just to remind the reader that this book is not written in dry as
dust academic language but in a language that is as vivid as the
characters it succesfully describes. And there seems to be no holding
back on the details or just plain facts of the many stories and
probably legends of the people who were generally considered the
downtrodden but in at least some fashion were the life's
blood of the most exciting and vital city in the world during
this period, the early adolesence of young America, eventually the
country that saved the world.
"Low Life" is also well illustrated with well placed photos and
drawings and, frankly, is a remarkable bargain.
I give Luc Sante's "Low Life" five stars.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Changed My Life - As a New York City resident when this book was initially published, I read every word greedily. Then, when the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was in its infancy I visited, in part because of this book, which is fascinating in its look of what NYC was like for most people in the 19th and early 20th century. After visiting the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, I volunteered there. Because I volunteered there, I met and married my husband, who has been associated with the museum since it began in the 1980s. We now live in what used to be a Bowery flophouse.
That's my personal story, but Luc Sante will open your eyes to the story of the working class, the low-life. Read it!
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Excellent, imminently readable, & fascinating ... - 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.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Essential reading for those interested in NYC History - This is a really well crafted work filled with exciting storytelling -- though these stories are factual. Hollywood really has no reason for writers with material like this. If your interested at all in the criminal history of NY, then check this out.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
A vivid account of New York City in the 1890's - Luc Sante's "Low Life" is a vivid account of New York City around the 1890's.
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