Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

by Luc Sante

Paperback, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

F128 .S23

Genres

Publication

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2003), Edition: 1st, 496 pages

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 metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York's past but about the present and future of all cities.… (more)

Media reviews

The New Republic

And the compulsion to sensationalize undercuts Sante's civic passions; in place of desire and tragedy it serves up cartoon of urban "types." ... Sante sets out to deploy the term "lowlife" ironically with downtown chutzpah, but he ends up using it with the tone of an out-of-towner's jeer.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AsYouKnow_Bob

Endlessly fascinating - makes NYC resonate with the layers of history that engulf even the visitor.

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LibraryThing member mkhobson

This is a fascinating book exploring the demimonde of New York City. As New York history is a particular interest of mine, I found this book utterly riveting. Full of scandalous tidbits and insightful social commentary.

LibraryThing member kraaivrouw

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.

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LibraryThing member EricCostello

A generally good book, with a handful of flaws. Sante, in this volume, gives an oversight of what New York City was like from roughly the 1830s to the end of World War I, going through various aspects of life. A lot of this is familiar territory (see below), but it is written very engagingly, and

is a pleasure to read. There's also a very good selection of illustrations, something that many books in this field ignore. I think one of the major flaws of the book (and why I don't give it five stars) is that Sante does a miserable job of citing his sources. For example, there's material in the book that I know was taken from "Great Riots of New York," but that book isn't even cited. The bibliography is something of a joke, as well. It's also fairly clear that Sante is leaning heavily on Herbert Asbury's famous "Gangs of New York." A very good book, and a fun read, but by no means groundbreaking.

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LibraryThing member cmeatto

A detailed and well documented look into the physical and cultural development of New York's non-society scene of the 19th century. Chapters on Saloon Culture and Housing paritcularly revealing. Assigned reading for LES hipsters.

LibraryThing member amelish

Pre-Haussmann Paris and turn-of-the-century New York have an energy in common. So much more to think about here, sometime...

LibraryThing member William345

This is a fascinating tour of New York's Bowery which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a hotbed of gambling, prostitution, and nefarious cons working every conceivable angle on the city's unsuspecting and credulous. It is a breathtaking and enormously entertaining catalog of roguery,

well written and researched, that left this reader filled with admiration. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member datrappert

It took me much longer than it should have to finish this book, because I was constantly putting it down to look up people on Wikipedia or to track down referenced books on Project Gutenberg or Archive.org. Or to look at locations on Google Maps to see what they look like now. Sante's book,

published in 1992, may not seem quite as interesting now, since much of what he covered has been written about in other books or on various internet sites--but it remains a well-written, engaging look at the "low life" of New York City from Colonial times to World War I. The focus, more often than not, is on the Bowery and its memorable characters and crimes. At times, the parade of personalities gets to be a bit tedious and hard to keep track of. I think the book might have benefited from a more chronological order rather than thematic order--but this is a small quibble. Sante's treatment of his subjects and his sources is exemplary throughout. He presents everything, no matter how awful or peculiar, in an objective manner with only unobtrusive editorializing. After reading this book, you'll want to wander the backstreets of Lower Manhattan for hours on end. And you'll be happy you aren't doing it 125 years ago!

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LibraryThing member kapheine

There were a handful of interesting parts, but a lot of it turned into a laundry list of names. Once I decided to start skipping over parts that went too far down into details I started enjoying it a little more.

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