Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

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 story of the city's slums and teeming streets, scenes 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 topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two explores 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 juxtaposes the city's periods of revolt and idealism against its everyday reality. Low Life provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was readily 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 that has much to say, not only about New York's past, but also about the present and future of all cities.