Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

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Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

3.54 of 5 stars 3.54 · rating details · 5,742 ratings · 892 reviews

Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreig...more Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot’s earnings and kept a “whipper” on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.

Not everyone appreciated the sisters’ attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters’ most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery”——the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink” Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.(less)

Hardcover, 356 pages

Published July 10th 2007 by Random House Publishing Group

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Jan 05, 2008 Desiree Koh rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: puritans

Shelves: ohmychicago

As a general rule of thumb, I like all books about Chicago history because there's really no way to go wrong with tales about our city. So I'd been wanting to read this book since it was released, and finally, my most excellent book club the Literary Brats got down to it.

So I also think you'd really have to screw up to write a bad book about Chicago history. This book is about professional screwing and Karen Abbott is some screwball kinda writer. How difficult is it to write a great book about s...more As a general rule of thumb, I like all books about Chicago history because there's really no way to go wrong with tales about our city. So I'd been wanting to read this book since it was released, and finally, my most excellent book club the Literary Brats got down to it.

So I also think you'd really have to screw up to write a bad book about Chicago history. This book is about professional screwing and Karen Abbott is some screwball kinda writer. How difficult is it to write a great book about shenanigans in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century and the whoring high life? Corruption, vice, horse manure, tawdry sex, lots of mirrors -- this should be a book that writes itself. I was expecting sordid tales about what went on in the brothels of the Levee District (at least in the Everleigh Club, which the book centres on), more concrete histories about the Everleigh sisters who owned the brothel (or at least, Abbott's opinion on what may have been their rightful biography), life histories of the more prominent harlots at the club and more detailed descriptions of services tendered.

What you end up getting are cursory chaptered details on the above, with too much emphasis on the puritanical fight to eradicate the Levee District and vice in Chicago. Sure, that is part of the neighbourhood's history, but we know how that story ends -- but why don't we know more about Suzy Poon Tang, the exotic courtesan from China who arrived in Chicago via Singapore (!)? Why aren't we offered an opinion on whether or not Abbott believes the Everleigh sisters were prostitutes themselves before they made their fortune? Why is the most extraordinary sexual favour in the book a millionaire patron who enjoys tossing gold coins onto a harlot's pundendum? Truly, reading this book is like having sex without orgasm as someone pounds a bible on your head.

To make matters worse, Abbott lifts many passages and facts from a subjective biography of the Everleigh sisters, "Come to My Parlor." And, she has no ties to Chicago apart from the fact that a great-great-grandmother moved here from Eastern Europe and was never heard of again. The book launch party was in New York, for god's sakes. I felt like the book was a chick lit version of a history book, and for book clubs who met in cute Bohemian cafes sipping chai teas and noshing on cupcakes, not book clubs who meet online and like pizza.

Still, I enjoyed the moments of Chicago life in the 1900s and loved the descriptions of the city then -- we were some kind of piece of work. I appreciate new trivia, such as the term "lay" coming from the Everleigh moniker. I also found it extremely fascinating that 100 years later, us and our world has changed so much, but the basest of human nature remains unchanged and just as repulsive. But please, can someone just tell me more about Suzy Poon Tang?(less)

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Jan 01, 2008 Keri rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who loved Devil in the White City

Shelves: recentlyread

I absolutely loved this book. I found it in my local library by chance and I'm glad I did. I love historical books about Chicago. Sin in the Second City has much in common with Devil in the White City as it takes place roughly during the same time period in Chicago (around 1900).

Although the subject matter may turn some people off, I loved learning about the history of prostitution in Chicago. It was surprising to discover that this is a true story. Maybe it is naive of me but I kept having to...more

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Aug 28, 2007 Pete rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007

Abbott's book is an entertaining enough read, and has plenty of interesting tidbits of Chicago history, but is nothing spectacular. It's interesting to me how open prostitution was in the not-so-distant past, and one has to wonder if the current condition is an improvement. I was walking on Lower Wacker the other day, and there were some miserable looking hookers. It was dark and dank and depressing. Considering our apparent inability to abolish the oldest profession, I wonder: is the false glam...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Corbin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

I picked up this book after wandering around the bookstore for an hour looking for the perfect non-fiction read and I sure did pick up the right one! I think what makes this book interesting (and adds to the historic legitimacy) is that Abbott is able to connect the story to famous characters in history. Certainly, we can all believe that Jack Johnson visited the Everleigh Club, but did you know the mysterious connection to Marshall Field Jr, the heir to that now-nonexistent department store, Ma...more I picked up this book after wandering around the bookstore for an hour looking for the perfect non-fiction read and I sure did pick up the right one! I think what makes this book interesting (and adds to the historic legitimacy) is that Abbott is able to connect the story to famous characters in history. Certainly, we can all believe that Jack Johnson visited the Everleigh Club, but did you know the mysterious connection to Marshall Field Jr, the heir to that now-nonexistent department store, Marshall Fields? We can connect any dirty business in Chicago during the early 1900's to Al Capone, but what about John D. Rockefeller?

I think one of the most fascinating aspects of this historical account is that it challenges our vision of the 20th century as a time of morality; instead we're faced with a different situation--one where individuals are free to develop their Jekyl and Hyde personas under the shroud of anonymity due the a large-scale population boom.

Although this is a non-fiction account, the book reads much like a novel. Scenes are descriptive to the point where they are almost begging for speculation as to where the actual account originated. Nevertheless, it keeps the pages turning and makes for an excellent alternative to the dry fact-spitting history books that litter most libraries.

I'd be a fool not to comment on the author's research. Clearly, to write a historical non-fiction as descriptive as this one, any author would have to be fully versed in the chronology of events relating to their subject (and in this case, who wouldn't be interested in the relationships between madams, ministers, and playboys!) Abbott most certainly doesn't disappoint.

The last note I'd like to make about this book is regarding the snapshots of history that Abbott is so clear to point out. The "invasion of Harlots" that is described toward the end of the book was definately the cherry on top for me. Imagine! 2,000 harlots walking down Michigan Avenue! One can dream to see such an amzing display in their lifetime! Seriously though, it was a profound statement about the separation of districts--either they are segregated to their own area, or they are made 'public.'

I've personally always believed that if tidbits of history like this were taught in history class, that, KIDS WOULD ACTUALLY THINK HISTORY IS COOL! Sure, all those constitutions and bills are important, but there is a lot more to history than documents written by old white men. Whoodathunk?
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Jun 10, 2008 Tina Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I lived in Chicago for several years so it was nice to see some of the pictures, especially since the locale of the infamous Everleigh Club now contains a couple of high-rise, public housing projects. The area is undergoing development lately with nice condos and apartments mingled closely to the high-rises. I like historical accounts of the miscreants of society, and this was pretty good. The two sisters trying to bring some "respect" to the world's oldest profession - it almost made you see th...more

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Mar 09, 2008 Alice rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2008

"I want to stress that this is a work of nonfiction; every character I describe lived and breathed, if not necessarily thrived, on the Levee's mean streets," writes author Karen Abbott in her introduction.

What immediately bothered me about the book, though, was the extent to which Karen Abbott took liberties to 'fictionalize' her non-fiction, adding window-dressing and drapery to an already rich tapestry of research material.

Take this section, for instance:

"'It's going to be difficult, at first,...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Martin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008books

In “Sin in the Second City” Karen Abbott tells us in her subtitle that the book is ultimately about “the Battle for America's Soul.” Pretty heady! I suppose that the battle still persists to this day, so I shouldn’t have expected a victor in the book itself, yet was left feeling unsatisfied at not even having a side to root for. Abbott seemingly couldn’t decide if she was writing a slice-of-life about Chicago’s vice district at the turn of the century, a profile of two successful sisters running...more In “Sin in the Second City” Karen Abbott tells us in her subtitle that the book is ultimately about “the Battle for America's Soul.” Pretty heady! I suppose that the battle still persists to this day, so I shouldn’t have expected a victor in the book itself, yet was left feeling unsatisfied at not even having a side to root for. Abbott seemingly couldn’t decide if she was writing a slice-of-life about Chicago’s vice district at the turn of the century, a profile of two successful sisters running a posh brothel, or a narrative history of the battle between reformers and vice lords. Elements of all three different books come to the fore at different times in the relatively scant 300 pages of text, with no one tack prevailing. I never felt that I had a satisfying level of detail about “the Levee” – the infamous vice district – or a real grasp of the tale of Ada and Minna Everleigh – the sister-proprietors of the infamous “Everleigh Club” – OR a clear-cut understanding of the major players and sequence of events in the battle between the reform movement and the criminal element. Ultimately, Abbott gives a muddled portrait of a bunch of people at the turn of the century who, while colorful enough, aren’t well-enough detailed to be compelling, or motivated well enough to be understandable, dropped into a sequence of events that seems dramatic but is utterly without stakes or importance.

This leads to the primary question I had with the book: who are we, the readers, supposed to root for (if anyone), and/or who does Abbott seem to prefer in this mini-epic “Battle”? I am also not so simple a reader as to require a “good guy” and a “bad guy” in the stories I read, but some person or people I could care about on more than a cursory level would have been sufficient. Seemingly, the Everleigh sisters, in trying to raise their whorehouse to a higher standard and cater to a more exclusive, monied clientele, are our heroes, as it were. But we know precious little about them, partially because they (presumably by necessity) obfuscate so much information about their lives, and partly because there are so many other outsize characters in the book that Abbott doesn’t have the time to invest them with anything other than the most limited amount of depth. The other characters in the Levee are mostly abominable: vicious pimps and madams, forcing their whores into disgusting and vile acts, while meting out healthy portions of abuse and disease. Nobody to sympathize with there… Abbott then treats the reformers of the time with disdain, portraying them as timorous moralizers, pedantic grandstanders, superficial busybodies. I suppose there is something postmodern in the idea that there are no heroes in this story, but one still gets the feeling that Abbott sides with the vice district, somehow wishing that prostitution, segregated from the mainstream of society, could entirely be elevated to the “classy” level of the Everleigh Club and allowed to continue on(?!). Certainly the reform-minded crusaders – religious and political – are not shown as heroic janitors of a social filth. Yet Chicago’s vice district IS clearly a rats’ nest of illness and misery – with the possible exception of the dubious accomplishments of the Everleigh Club in partially raising the brothel to a not-totally-disgusting-and-horrendous level.

In this book, it would seem a shame that the Everleigh Club was shuttered by an apprehensive and capricious mayor. It may be that it is meant to be a shame simply because of the changing of the times – the passing of an epoch. But I had a hard time working up a great deal of emotional nostalgia for the closing of Chicago’s fanciest whorehouse out of a pack of awful whorehouses. Is this the sort of changing of the times that we should lament? The end of the good times? (We aren’t even to the Roaring ‘20s yet!) Were these times really so good in the first place?? Abbott is at pains to downplay much of the basis for the moral fervor over “white slavery.” She seems largely to dismiss the idea advocated by the reformers: that credulous women from out of town were lured off train platforms into houses of ill repute by (moustache-twirling) villains. Instead, she indicates that many of these women chose “the life” for themselves. I both have a hard time believing this, and have a hard time accepting it as a mitigating factor in the brutal turn-of-the-century sex industry. Is it proto-feminism? A woman’s right to do with her body as she pleases? Based on some of the nasty anecdotes in the book, one would imagine it was anything but. Is she really advocating for women to be allowed to be publicly whipped in S&M-style displays for male titillation? (Such were some of the entertainments at the less-classy brothels.) Does anyone really think women were willingly and rationally choosing this for themselves? Yet Abbott’s authorial loyalties do seem to lie with her unruly, anti-heroic whores and madams. (Obviously, I just don’t get it.)

The book was interesting enough as a sketch of a wonderfully alien time and place, all taking place here in the city where I live and the streets where I walk. But beyond the curiosity factor, I did not find much of any substance – certainly nothing that would indicate this book was about the battle for America’s very soul! I would have appreciated Abbott tipping her hand more: why, aside from the vaguest modern-day resonances of religious people legislating morality, were the reformers so lame in her eyes? Conversely, Abbott would have been well served to detach herself and give us sympathetic characters on both sides of the battle: a compassionate reformer with the best interests of women and society at heart, clashing with a big-hearted madam just trying to make a living, to show the democratic conundrum between freedom and immorality. But the battle is inconsistently pitched, from an authorial perspective, and ultimately relegates the book into muddled, if interesting, purposelessness.(less)

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Dec 16, 2008 Bonnie G rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love books about Chicago because I can picture the places so well, even though these places were set 100 years ago and I have never walked in a red light district! She includes lots and lots of detail, like a good historian, but it slows down the pace quite a bit. Anyway, she chose two fascinating women to follow through the history of the red light (Levee) district. As I was reading this, the slimey governor of Illinois made the news. Some things apparently never change, as this book outlines...more

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May 04, 2008 Pamela W rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Kir, Adele, even that hooker-lover Otis if she could bother to create a goodreads acct

Shelves: mymap

3.5 stars. Hookers, graft and corruption in early 1900s Chicago - - you had me at hookers. This felt similar to "Devil in the White City" except no serial killer (sorry killer-lovers) just the political and religious battles surrounding prostitution. Sounds like Chicago was hella more interesting back in the day, although yes, stinkier/dirtier and disease-riddled, and likely more prone to disfiguring industrial-type accidents. Still, I'd go back in my time capsule to check it out, and I would de...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history buffs, would be madams

Shelves: non-fiction

This book was a real page turner, and a fascinating and well researched snapshot of Chicago history. The writing is excellent and reads like fiction through much of the book. I loved reading the descriptions of the brothels and the daily life of their inhabitants, particularly what set the Everleigh club apart from lower institutions. I did feel that the events and and the more minor players were underdeveloped at times, which made some of the people hard to track and remember. The first half wa...more

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Jun 09, 2009 Jeannette rated it 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this book, which I'd heard about from my friend Kathy. She'd mentioned it to me because I grew up in Chicago. I found the opening chapters to be quite astounding. Even though it became a bit plodding in the middle section, the overall picture of American sexual mores at the turn of the last century -- and the reform movement that stopped things in their tracks -- was very interesting.

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Oct 31, 2007 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Oh I wanted this book to be so much more than it was. The story of the Everleigh sisters, along with Bathhouse John and Hinky Dick, is such a colorful one in the City of Chicago. Yet this book makes it almost (not quite) boring. Too much jumping around in time and storylines. It just didn't come together.

If the data is so limited, this story could easily have been fictionalized and made really, really readable and exciting. Just because something is fiction does not mean it doesn't contain the...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Joy

Shelves: non-fiction

Abbott traces the history of Chicago's most famous (and most posh) brothel at the turn of the century, and the religious and social crusaders who worked tirelessly to try to end prostitution.

The two Everleigh sisters created their own last name, backgrounds, and ages (declaring themselves a decade younger), and moved to Chicago to start up a high-class brothel. Unlike the existing brothels, their whores would come to them, be educated and refined, and make good money.

At the same time, reformer...more

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May 08, 2013 Ben rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book started out great - two shady entrepreneur sister madams setting up shop in Chicago at the start of the 20th century, colorful and corrupt local politicians, prominent customers who sometimes wind up dead, ruthless competitors, and holy crusaders looking to shut down the whole business.

Then, about 1/3 of the way through, the story gradually shifted focus to the campaign to end sex trafficking and the prosecution of madams and johns under the Mann Act. Although that could have been inte...more

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May 03, 2013 M.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Being a Chicagoan myself, I was very interested in this historical period, the time between the post-Chicago-Fire Gilded Age, including the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Prohibition Era of the late 1920s Abbott does a good job of filling in the blanks and connecting the dots between famously corrupt politicians like Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky-Dink Kenna, some of the straighter ones, the city's social elite and the denizens of the city's notorious red-light district, The Levee (mos...more Being a Chicagoan myself, I was very interested in this historical period, the time between the post-Chicago-Fire Gilded Age, including the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Prohibition Era of the late 1920s Abbott does a good job of filling in the blanks and connecting the dots between famously corrupt politicians like Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky-Dink Kenna, some of the straighter ones, the city's social elite and the denizens of the city's notorious red-light district, The Levee (most of which has been long obliterated by the start of I-55 and the McCormick Place exposition hall campus).

But most fascinating figures of all were the Everleigh Sisters. Nobody knew where they'd come from, and nobody knew where they disappeared to when they left at the opportune moment, just before Mayor Carter Harrison was pushed into cleaning up the district. The Everleighs -- that wasn't even their real surname -- were two young women who were not only much more shrewd businesspersons than the usual residents of The Levee but also much classier. They aspired to refinement and saw no reason their house of pleasure shouldn't aspire to the same, thus getting them the sons of the elite as clients. In fact, one of department store magnate Marshall Field's sons was supposedly shot on the premises but managed to get home and later claimed he'd accidentally shot himself at home. Nobody on either side talked, so to this day nobody can prove it happened at the Everleigh Club; but that was the exception to the rule.

Most clients came for a good time, in private, and got both. Even Harrison himself admitted to having been pleasantly entertained there. The sisters' elegant bordello also treated its girls much better than the competition did and trained them, organized them, refined them, dressed them in gowns and jewels. The Everleighs even had a haute-cuisine-trained chef, though that was really for the clientele, not the courtesans (though the latter also benefited).

The sisters, however, are the real stars, and Abbott does a fine job of illuminating their history. As a result, we now know far more about them than anyone else did while they were alive. A very entertaining read, and a fast one. If you loved Erik Larsen's Devil in the White City, you'll like this, too. Enjoy!
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Jan 17, 2013 Madeline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-nonfiction

"In the winter of 1899, a train clattered toward Chicago, fat coils of smoke whipping the sky. Minna and Ada Everleigh sat together in a Pullman Palace car, sipping wine served by porters in white jackets and gloves. ...The air inside the car hung heavy and whisper-quiet, but the sisters were restless, giddy with plans: they would build upon what they had learned as madams in Omaha, Nebraska, and create the finest brothel in history."

Man, who doesn't love a good old-timey hooker story? Karen Abb...more "In the winter of 1899, a train clattered toward Chicago, fat coils of smoke whipping the sky. Minna and Ada Everleigh sat together in a Pullman Palace car, sipping wine served by porters in white jackets and gloves. ...The air inside the car hung heavy and whisper-quiet, but the sisters were restless, giddy with plans: they would build upon what they had learned as madams in Omaha, Nebraska, and create the finest brothel in history."

Man, who doesn't love a good old-timey hooker story? Karen Abbott's story of the Everleigh sisters' rise and fall in the vice district of early 20th-century Chicago is engrossing, well-researched, and fun. Minna and Ada Everleigh (not their real names, of course) came to Chicago with plans to start the best brothel in Chicago, and they were unique in that respect because they wanted to run a house where girls would want to work. Other brothels of the time got their girls by kidnapping, drugs, and rape, but the Everleigh sisters were different:

"The Everleigh sisters vowed never to deal with pimps, desperate parents selling off children, panders, and white slavers. If you treated girls well, they would come begging for admittance. A prospective Everleigh courtesan must prove she's eighteen in order to earn an interview, understand exactly what the job entailed, and know she's free to leave anytime, for any reason, without penalty."

Starting on this basis, the Everleigh sisters bought a house in Chicago's infamous Levee district, and soon created the most exclusive, beautiful, and famous brothel in Chicago. They entertained politicians, gangsters, playboys, and princes - they even, at one point, admitted a famous African-American boxer into the Everleigh Club, an act which was socially forbidden at the time (the girls all found the boxer delightful, and there was no trouble).

"[Clients] came to see the Moorish Room, featuring the obligatory Turkish corner, complete with overstuffed couches and rich, sweeping draperies; and the Japanese Parlor, with its ornately carved teakwood chair resting upon a dais, a gold sold canopy hovering above. (The Tribune noted that the Japanese Parlor was 'a harlot's dream of what a Japanese palace might look like inside.') In the Egyptian Room, a full-sized effigy of Cleopatra kept a solemn eye on the proceedings. The Chinese Room, entirely different from the ambiguously named Oriental Room, offered packages of tiny firecrackers and a huge brass beaker in which to shoot them - where else but at the Everleigh Club could a man indulge his adult and childish impulses?"

Running the brothel wasn't easy, though. In addition to bribing the authorities and dealing with the competing madams trying to put them out of business, the Everleigh sisters also had to deal with the anti-prostitution reformers who flocked to the city. Around the time the Everleigh Club was taking off, newspapers were starting to feature stories of innocent girls trapped by the "white slave trade" (because obviously it's only sad when it happens to white virgins): young girls would be taken to dance halls, plied with liquor, and then drugged by their escorts. They would wake up in a brothel, having been raped multiple times, and were told that they would have to work there from now on. Reformers caught onto these stories and set about destroying the vice district in Chicago and ironically, they focused their attentions on the one brothel in the city that had nothing to do with the white slave trade: the Everleigh Club.

Abbott's book focuses mostly on the reformers and the efforts of the Everleigh sisters to keep their club open (along with several other key Levee players), and this is to the detriment of the book. I wanted to book to be about the Everleigh Club and have the reformers be a subplot, but often it's the other way around. We get brief little anecdotes about the prostitutes and what went on behind closed doors at the Club (like one client who enjoyed tossing gold coins at his favorite girl, the deal being that she could keep whatever she caught in her snatch), but they're few and far between as we spend too much time with the reformers.

Also, Abbott's glasses are a little bit too rose-tinted when she's discussing the issue of prostitution in the early 20th century. She treats the stories of drugged girls being violated by "professional rapists" (which has to be one of the Top Five Most Horrifying Job Titles) with a little too much unconcern, as if we're supposed to believe that those things don't happen nowadays. First off, old-timey rapists are still rapists, and stories of kidnapping and sexual slavery aren't improved by the fact that they're sepia-toned (so I don't view it as a good thing that the New York Times Book Review blurb called this book "a lush love letter to the underworld"). Second, while I understand that the purpose of Abbott's book isn't to educate her readers on modern sex trafficking, it would have been nice if there was some acknowledgement that the horrifying practices she describes are still going on today, and didn't disappear along with the Jazz Age.

All in a all, a fun romp through Chicago's seedy history and a cool glimpse into the underworld and its people. It's History Lite, but it's well-written, well-researched, good unclean fun.

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Aug 31, 2012 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I recently went on a trip to Chicago (I'm from the west coast) and picked this book up in the airport bookstore on the way home. I really wanted to like this book, but I have to admit that I fell asleep a few times while reading it.

First, I have to say that one of my favorite subjects for reading is prostitution. In fact, the older the story, the better. I prefer to read non-fiction in all facets, if possible, so this fit the bill. The problem I had with this book is that there were many things...more I recently went on a trip to Chicago (I'm from the west coast) and picked this book up in the airport bookstore on the way home. I really wanted to like this book, but I have to admit that I fell asleep a few times while reading it.

First, I have to say that one of my favorite subjects for reading is prostitution. In fact, the older the story, the better. I prefer to read non-fiction in all facets, if possible, so this fit the bill. The problem I had with this book is that there were many things unexplained. For instance, I did not ever truly understand what "Second City" means. Perhaps it was explained somewhere in the book, but I feel asleep so many times while reading it that I will never know. I also did not know why they called this section of town "The Levee". I know that there is a lake, and I know that there is a river. Without being from Chicago, and in my four days of walking around Chicago I didn't see a levee, so why?

While it is a very interesting story, and I would still recommend it, I struggled with a lot of the language in the writing. The author uses a lot of the language of the time (the story takes place at the turn of the 20th century), but fails to interpret. I'm not unintelligent, but I don't want to have to look up words when I'm reading. It's not that they were "big words", they were just words that aren't used anymore. For instance, "alderman" was a title of people who were apparently holding office. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the term "alderman". I assumed the definition of the word, but never truly understood the title. I was not in a position to look up the word, which is what I normally would have done. The author assumed that I knew what she was talking about, and perhaps it could be pointed out to me that I am just an idiot. Nonetheless, I would have preferred some more background.

The story was fascinating, and I want to know more. I was PUT OFF by the fact that the liners and the cover mentioned Al Capone several times, but he was not at all a part of the story. It just happens that people in the story knew him. In fact, I was offended that it was even necessary to mention him at all. The people, and the story, was good enough and interesting enough and it felt, as the reader, that the author dropped his name just to entice me to read it. I would have read it anyways, but now I'm just annoyed.

Lastly, I have to admit that the writing was jumbled. I was confused a few times but carried on. I am a highly intelligent person and don't like to be confused when reading. There were several chapters that I had to re-read. I don't like doing that. On the other hand, I don't want to read something so easy that it's on a 3rd grade level, but I prefer that the story line makes sense. This didn't necessarily make sense.

I got the gist of the story, and quite honestly I'd like to know a bit more about the reality. I probably will not read another book by this same author but I would probably read another book about this same subject.

The only reason I'm giving this a more positive than negative is that it is a story about something I didn't know before and now I'm more intrigued. I felt like the writer was extremely pretentious and assumed too much of her reader. She will probably get better, as she picks good subject matter and definitely does her research. Unfortunately, she lacks in the organization.

With all that said, I applaud any writer and am gracious for the opportunity to learn more about history, and I did appreciate that the author granted the same respect to the prostitutes that she did to the reformers.
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Mar 03, 2012 Brenna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Picked this up off a shelf at the library because it seemed intriguing, and it did not disappoint. It's a history of the Everleigh Club in Chicago, a world-famous brothel run by two enterprising sisters from 1900 until the club was shut down around 1911. The title pretty much summarizes the central conflict: in the early 20th century prostitution was still legal in segregated districts, but Christian ministers and their congregations were actively lobbying for an end to prostitution. The Everlei...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Jessi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs-and-bios, nonfiction

The captivating story of sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh and their world-famous Everleigh Club, the classiest brothel in Chicago at the turn of the century. Abbott clearly did her homework and does a super job of fleshing out the main characters against the background of the Victorian socio-political climate. As we already know, the crazy preachers won the political game in the end. They managed to blow up a destructive storm of tall tales on "white slavery" to enrage the terrified conservative...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Susan Howard rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bookclub choice by Shaun Dudek. I listened to it on CD. A LONG historical true story, with interesting tidbits about the trade--how the term "getting laid" came from the Everleigh Club, etc.
It would be interesting to see the place but it no longer exists.

Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Cl...more Bookclub choice by Shaun Dudek. I listened to it on CD. A LONG historical true story, with interesting tidbits about the trade--how the term "getting laid" came from the Everleigh Club, etc.
It would be interesting to see the place but it no longer exists.

Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot’s earnings and kept a “whipper” on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.

Not everyone appreciated the sisters’ attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters’ most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery”——the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink” Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity… (less)

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Nov 06, 2011 Mitch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought "Sin in the Second City" was a awesome chunk of American history. Chicago is one of my favourite cities to visit and I find that Chicago is just overflowing with interesting tidbits of history. People say this book is similar to the style of "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, but I must say I found "Sin in the Second City" MUCH MUCH MUCH more enthralling and interesting.

I can honestly say I have never read a book about brothels and prostitues but I'm glad I did! This book di...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Gina rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a book that I would normally not be attracted to in a library or bookstore, but was in a pile of "books discarded by friends" that I'm working my way through. So for the first third of the book, I was really excited by what seemed to be a surprise gem!

The story of the 2 sisters opening a brothel in Chicago in the early 20th century, doing their best to add some "class" to a sordid industry, was really unique and interesting. I've recently read some articles and discussions about legaliz...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Yasmin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Chicago, as Mark Twain put it, “outgrows her prophecies faster than she can make them … she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.” The city yields multiply layered histories to those who take the time to search. Karen Abbott’s Sin in the Second City is an assiduously researched and lively look at the Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, women who seemed to come from nowhere to found the famed brothel, the Everleigh Club. The sisters maintained a spectacular home and bu...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very informative book about the sex and prostitution industry in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century and the tension in America between sin and Puritanism. The book focuses on the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in 20th century America, which was located in the Levee district of Chicago and was run by Minna and Ada Everleigh. Unlike other madams operating in Chicago at that time, the Everleigh sisters made sure that their "butterflies" lived comfortably, made a good living, an...more

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Jul 19, 2010 ~ Jackson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished reading 'Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul' and I must say that I enjoyed it immensely. So far, easily my favorite book in quite a while. Ms. Abbott brings Chicago at the turn of the last century alive. From the local law enforcement to the crooks; prostitutes to their clients; politicians to the preachers; and everyone in between, she brings all of them to life. It's almost like she jumped into a time machine and went back in...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Benjaminxjackson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book focuses primarily on the Everleigh Club, a high-class brothel in Chicago run by two sisters. Based on the title, I thought this was going to be more of a survey of the characters of the Chicago underworld over time.

That said, the book was well written and flowed nicely. The Everleigh club was a high-class, expensive place, where the girls were regularly checked by a doctor.

The story of the club and the women who run it serves as a framework for describing the times in which it existe...more

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May 28, 2010 Sophia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, chicago, non-fiction, prostitute, women-s-studies

Karen Abbott's meticulously researched Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America's Soul reads like a leisurely carriage ride through a specific moment in American history. The storytelling is glamorous, unhurried, and sometimes the characters blur together from afar in Chicago's underworld at the dawn of the 20th century. Abbott focuses on Ada and Minna Everleigh, a pair of sisters who ran the most upscale--and in some ways, most progressive--brothel in Chica...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Comparing this book to "Devil in the White City" is really the only way that "Sin in the Second City" will come up short. I almost wish I'd read this one first.

LOT'S of great tidbits about brothel-life in Chigago in the early 1900's. Minna and Ada, the proprieters (madams) of the Everleigh Club, were WAY ahead of their time in deciding that an upscale environment + employeees who were treated well (clean, healthy, and VERY well-paid) + not allowing your customers to be robbed, murdered, or disea...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the colorful story of the Everleigh House - the most famous brothel in Chicago's history. The story is set during the early years of the 20th century. Sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh are the madams who run the internationally famous house where there were perfume fountains, a gold piano, expensive paintings and art, and themed rooms (oriental, Turkish, etc.). The Everleighs set high standards for their girls - and commanded high prices from their clients. The book also puts a spotlight o...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Steven Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Who might imagine that a book about Chicago's bordellos at the turn of the century (late 1890s and early 1900s) could be so fascinating! This book, in the first instance, is an interesting portrayal of how two madams, Minna and Ada "Everleigh" (their last name made up for the occasion) ran a bordello that was much higher class than the other sordid businesses surrounding them in the "Levee," a section of the First Ward in Chicago.

It is also a story of the politics, economics, and culture of Chi...more Who might imagine that a book about Chicago's bordellos at the turn of the century (late 1890s and early 1900s) could be so fascinating! This book, in the first instance, is an interesting portrayal of how two madams, Minna and Ada "Everleigh" (their last name made up for the occasion) ran a bordello that was much higher class than the other sordid businesses surrounding them in the "Levee," a section of the First Ward in Chicago.

It is also a story of the politics, economics, and culture of Chicago at century's turn. The Chicago machine was humming along nicely, with the politics of favoritism and the politics of corruption working together. In the First Ward, two political leaders, Hinky Dink Kenna and John Coughlin were the powers that be. And key players for making sure that bordellos operated without crass interference from the police!

These houses of ill repute often hosted major figures in Chicago. Marshall Fields' son died after an incident in the Levee. People like Theodore Dreiser haunted the district.

And the Everleigh Club attracted many of the "higher order" guests to the district. The "girls" who worked there were treated well (in comparison to other harlots in the district), were taught to speak about literature, dressed exquisitely, were regularly inspected by doctors to make sure that they were in good shape physically, and so on.

This book is a story of the Levee's operation, the Everleigh Sisters efforts to run a class bordello, the efforts by honest judicial officials and reformers to shut down the bordellos, and the intricate web among players--from Congressman Mann to the Mayor of Chicago to the Police to. . . . This web is well described by author Karen Abbott.

This is an historical effort that reads like a novel. And the Sisters had, in many senses, the last laugh. They left their business behind when it became reasonably clear that the end of the Levee as then known was coming to an end. They took their fortune and spent the remainder of their lives in New York--after a lengthy round-the-world trip.

A fascinating glimpse of Chicago's history.
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About Karen Abbott

Karen Abbott is the author of Sin in the Second City and American Rose, both New York Times bestsellers. She is a featured contributor to Smithsonian magazine’s history blog, Past Imperfect, and also writes for Disunion, the New York Times series about the Civil War. A native of Philadelphia, where she worked as a journalist, she now lives in New York City with her husband and two African Grey par...more

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“Leave the fireworks for those who cast no spark of their own.” — 19 people liked it

“A Republican is a man who wants you to go t'church every Sunday. A Democrat says if a man wants to have a glass of beer, he can have it.” — 4 people liked it

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