Low Life Lures and Snares of Old New York

by Sante, Luc

• ISBN13: 9780374528997
• ISBN10: 0374528993
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-24
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

Luc Sante'sLow Lifeis 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 Lifevoyages 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 Lifeprovides 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.

Author Biography

Luc Sante was born in Verviers, Belgium, and now lives in New York City. He is the author of Evidence, The Factory of Facts, and Walker Evans, and his work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and Harper's, among other publications. He teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College.

Table of Contents

PART 1. Landscape
The Body	3	(20)
Home	23	(23)
Streets	46	(25)
PART 2. Sporting Life
The Lights	71	(33)
Saloon Culture	104	(37)
Hop	141	(11)
Change	152	(25)
The Lost Sisterhood	177	(20)
PART 3. The Arm
Gangland	197	(39)
Coppers	236	(15)
The Tiger	251	(27)
Sainthood	278	(11)
Rubberneckers	289	(16)
PART 4. The Invisible City
Orphans	305	(8)
The Drift	313	(7)
Bohemia	320	(19)
Carnival	339	(18)
Night	357	(6)
Afterword	363	(18)
A Note on Sources	381	(10)
Notes	391	(12)
Index	403