The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld

by Herbert Asbury

Other authorsJorge Luis Borges (Foreword)

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

364.106097471

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Basic Books (2001), Paperback, 366 pages

Description

A New York Times Bestseller Looking at the lurid side of organized crime from the 1800's to Prohibition, this is a tour through a now unrecognizable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence. Asbury presents the definitive work on this subject, an illumination of the gangs of old New York that ultimately gave rise to the modern Mafia.

User reviews

LibraryThing member soliloquia

A novelised encyclopedia of the 19th century New York underworld. An unfussy approach; a pleasurable read.

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LibraryThing member varielle

I concluded I would have to read Gangs of New York after hearing that it had stuck with Martin Scorsese for forty years until he was able to make the movie of the same name. With that much staying power it did not disappoint. The endless gangs and characters become a blur, and the amount of crime

staggers the imagination. I often thought the Cagney era gangster names and lingo were fantasies of Hollywood, but they were nothing compared to the reality. From the Plug Uglies to the Whyos to the Baxter Street Dudes the gangs constantly morphed with each new wave of immigration. Little Augie, Goo Goo Knox and the Turtle were just a few in this cast of millions. The story of any one of them could carry a movie or a book devoted to them alone. A compelling read, but be warned the level of violence that was the reality makes the movie of this world look mild.

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LibraryThing member Tyllwin

History, though not scholarly history, he's telling (mostly) true stories, but it's stories and not footnoted historical material. Written eighty-some-odd years ago, the writing holds up surprising well, though from time to time a bit purple and incorrect for modern tastes.

LibraryThing member ursula

Tough going at times, a bit dry occasionally. However, it has some truly fascinating stories in it about the incredible rise of New York into a civilized city. It's amazing how brutal life was at the turn of the century with violence raging nearly nonstop in some areas.

LibraryThing member JBD1

Not overly scholarly or definitive, but an interesting read.

LibraryThing member JBreedlove

An enlightening look at the early history of New York City. The book bogs down in the categorizing of the gangs in the later years but still an eye-opening look at another time in the not so far away.

LibraryThing member Vercingetorix

This gave me new insight into the underpinnings of my country. New York City was forged in amazingly dark and brutal beginnings.

LibraryThing member IreneF

Not worth reading if you are interested in history. Asbury was a journalist, not a historian.

LibraryThing member mzonderm

When reading a book written some time ago, it's important to remember that standards and tastes may have been different back then. Such is the case here. It's entirely possible (in this case, likely) that this book was considered eminently readable when it was published in 1927, but today's readers

might find it somewhat more difficult.

Asbury presents us with a dizzying array of names of people (real names, pseudonyms, and nicknames) and places (modern and historical), barely pausing for breath, let alone meaningful distinction among them (I lost count of the number of gangsters described as "huge"). A map would have been nice, and a cast of characters even better.

Anecdotes are piled one on top of another, with little or no explanation as to why any of them are important or how any of them are connected. And each one is more sensationalistic than the last, making me wonder where Asbury got his information from. A bibliography is appended at the end of the book, but it's impossible to tell which stories he got from which sources (and, indeed, which came from "personal interviews" with criminals and police officers). So, as hard a time as I had just wading through the mass of details, I almost had an even harder time believing them.

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LibraryThing member wyclif

A raucous history of the early 19th century underbelly of New York City, replete with accounts of brutal gang warfare and Boss Tweed-era Tammany Hall political machination. Dime-novel storytelling, not actual history. A mostly riveting, edge-of-your-seat account of lowlife Americana: lots of

whisky, fisticuffs, brick-throwing, and bullets from the corrupt NYPD.

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LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla

I love to read about the squalid splendor of old New York, of the Five Points, the Bowery, of its sexology and night life. Alas and alack, those topics left their cards but didn't stay in this account of gangland during a century ending about 1925. Concentrations here include street fighting,

assassins, and turf wars, topics which are tangential at best to my reading interests. Further descent came from a chapter mostly devoted to the tools and techniques one might need to enter a bank vault and two longish chapters narrating the 1863 draft riots, an event which the author admits has almost no nexus with the gangs, save that many of the participants were members of gangs. The author occasionally deploys a tongue-in-cheek whimsy to good effect, but overall his style is competent but plodding.

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