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Apr 23, 2009

Jenifer rated it:

Just because this was for me doesn't mean it was for everyone. I just love reading about the vice and crime that characterizes the history of New York especially in the time period discussed in this non-fiction book. Starting at about 1829 and ending when the book was written in 1928, it chronicles the worst parts of town and its inhabitants; tough tough men women and children who did unspeakable things to survive. They were sometimes colorful and sometimes pathetic and their way of life is just More...

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Jan 27, 2009

Mark rated it:

Like its sister book Gangs of Chicago, Gangs of New York is an anecdotal history of the New York underworld in the 19th century from its nascence in the 1820's and 30's up until the the end of Tammany Hall and the corruption that sustained gang life as a New York institution.

It's a history populated by colorful characters like Sadie the Goat, a female river pirate, so-called because of her signature move of lowering her head and butting her adversary in the chest; Monk Eastman, form More...

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Jan 02, 2011

Joseph rated it:

The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury, written in 1928, is a great read for those who love to read stories about crime and criminals that took place in New York City, dating back to the early 1800's. The book starts with the chapter entitled “The Cradle of the Gangs,” which was the Five Points Area in 1829. Roughly, the Five Points area was the territory bounded by Broadway, Canal Street, the Bowery and Park Row, which was formerly Chatham Street. Now this area is the home to the city More...

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May 08, 2011

Mara rated it:

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 pausi More...

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Apr 24, 2009

Akiva rated it:

As the title suggests, this book is about the gangs of New York. In particular, it's a collection of mostly short anecdotes, in rough chronological order running from the mid nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. This rogue's gallery is full of tales about the worst sort of scofflaws: murderers, pickpockets, pimps, ear-biters, and greedy politicians. These tales of violence and depravity are interesting to read, but since most of the figures appear for only a few pages at a tim More...

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Oct 12, 2009

Kaput rated it:

Red Onions, Plug Uglies, The Battle Row Ladies Social and Athletic Club, Pearl Buttons, Little Doggies - these are just some of the stupidly named gangs that rampaged through New York during the nineteenth century. Gangsters of this period fare no better with names like Goo Goo Knox, Stumpy Malarkey, Honey Stewart, Kid Twist. I wondered whether this propensity for daft nicknames was a deliberate ploy to cheer them through the grinding poverty and appalling social conditions that they lived in.
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Aug 22, 2011

Derek rated it:

So thoroughly does Herbert Asbury embellish his facts in The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld that things just end up becoming a muddled farce, particularly near the end of the book where the names (Blanky the Blank is the general setup for these) and the stories have piled up beyond all recognition.

It sounds more fun than it actually is: a 1920s journalist recounting New York's heady, violent days in absurd exaggeration and abandon. Prostitution, drug abuse, More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Tocotin rated it:

I bought this book on account of the movie being one of my favorites, and enjoyed it (a bad word choice, maybe) very much. I didn't know that it was written in the 20s, and although the language and treatment of racial and gender matters is indeed outdated, it didn't spoil the pleasure for me.

I have two things to say. First is that in comparison with the contents of Asbury's book, Scorcese's supposedly gory movie seems full of rainbows and unicorns. (Also I'm kind angry at Scorsese for More...

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Jan 15, 2010

Stephen rated it:

This is an "informal" history published in 1929 about the street gangs that thrived in New York City from the 1800's on. It is not a novel or historical fiction and the movie is only very loosely based on it. For example, the character of Bill the Butcher is in the book but I did not find anyone resembling the Leonardo DiCaprio character in it. Bill the Butcher was just lifted out of the book along with as some other fascinating bits and pieces like the Dead Rabbits gang and a work More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Lara added it

The movie was abysmal, but the book is great. I love non-fiction about NYC, and this is a well-written history of the mostly Irish gangs in and around Five Points. It also talks about the intense poverty and unsafe living conditions of that era. One of my favorite parts was about a murder at a basement bar where the Strand Bookstore is today. I worked there for seven yrs and always felt that it had such bad energy. Now I know why. I remember that one of the curators from the Nat'l Museum o More...

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Apr 09, 2009

Don rated it:

Very senstational, journalist account of gangs in New York from mid 19th century until just after WWI. Certainly lends support to the idea that gangsterism is an immigrant phenonomen, with the Irish establishing the tradition, and it then being passed to various German, Jewish, Italiam, Chinese, and other tribes. But then again, New York is an immigrant phenonomen, so why wouldn't its gangs be?

Best chapter deals with the draft riots during the Civil War. The whole of Manhatten s More...

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Aug 21, 2009

Chris rated it:

Scorcese's movie based on this book is fun and engaging. This book can be, at times, but really, reading it is similar to reading the "begat" parts of the Old Testament. Asbury bombards you with names and dates and places in the city that haven't existed for 100 years. The book includes a few photos, which are great, but the references come so fast and furiously, it's impossible to keep up even with the limited visual aids.

The movie is an adaptation that takes parts of sev More...

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Mar 02, 2009

Alex rated it:

I think I love this book so much because its yet another bit of evidence that humans have always be sublimely f'd up and perverse, and criers of declining morality and vices of the twentieth century have no idea what they're talking about.

I also love it for it's great antique voice, that lets you know "THIS WAS WRITTEN LONG AGO". (Warning: antique voice means that antique casual racism is included as well, which honestly really isn't quite as delightful at ALL).

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Dec 13, 2008

Cwn_annwn_13 rated it:

This is an interesting history of gangs in New York City from the mid 1800's to I believe somewhere around the early 1920's. Talks about the many street battles and colorful characters, some of which seem to border on being folklore. These guys were legitimate hand to hand tough guys, not like the later weasely mafia types that would have somebody else shoot you in the back. These guys would fight it out themselves in the streets, in fact some of the guys talked about in this book were among the More...

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Jan 27, 2010

Walt rated it:

As one of the few books on gangs prior to Prohibition, this is an excellent book. However, Asbury was using a lot of sensational journalism as his sources. The result is that the book reads like a list of gangs, gang territory, and gang leaders without much substance such as recruitment, activities, and social aspects of the underworld. Nevertheless, he deserves praise for presenting information about the gangs at a time when there was very little interest in them. In a way he preserved the More...

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Feb 26, 2010

Jill rated it:

I'm not sure if I really like this book. It certainly provides a window on a unstable period of the great city when gangs ran rampant....and ran local politics as well. But it didn't have a flow of narrative; it felt almost disconnected and therefore, I couldn't concentrate on it. I put it down several times and would pick it up later but just couldn't stay with it for any length of time. However, there were sections of excellent detail and insight into the inner workings of the society and h More...

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Oct 10, 2009

Victoria rated it:

This book wasn't easy to read. It starts off fun especially if you're familiar with Manhattans downtown, but its not a fluid run-through read following an actual chain of events. It does but kind of jumps back and forth describing all the other crap that's transpiring and makes it quite difficult to follow. I wanted to get through in one rounded "sitting" but put it down several times and read other books in between. when I got through it I walked away with nothing more than what the f More...

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Nov 30, 2011

Gerardo rated it:

The This book focuses on the the saloon halls, gambling dens, and alleys of the Bowery and the Five Points district. The Gangs of New York names the poverty and violence of a furious era, when criminals such as Dandy John Dolan, Bill the Butcher, and Hell-Cat Maggie were feared notorious gangsters, and when evil gangs ruled the streets such as the Plug Uglies, the Dead Rabbits, and the Bowery Boys. Overall this book is really confusing because it changes from date to date making the reader becom More...

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Dec 03, 2010

Shek rated it:

There's a long tradition in New York of looking back on bygone periods of mind-bogglingly dangerous violent crime with a sort of wistful, carefree nostalgia. (Oh, will no one bring back the heroin-soaked early 80's, when you could ride a broke-ass graffiti covered subway car to the East Village, step over half-a-dozen junkies on your way up the Bowery to see a real live punk band (!) and then get blackjacked by a mugger trying to stumble home at 1:30?)

This one's the grand-daddy of them More...

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Jul 11, 2008

Richard rated it:

Herbert Asbury has developed in this book a delightfully readable (and read-out-loudable) history of the dark underbelly of New York City--the picaresque and downright nasty underground of gambling tongs, gang warfare and thorough political corruption.

I of course came to this book only recently, after having seen the Scorsese film of the same name. It is in fact quite wonderful to see the liberties Scorsese took to make a challenging film and not just a recapping of this oral-style More...

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Jul 08, 2008

Timothy rated it:

Gangs of New York is a valuable chronicle of persons, places, and events from approximately 1850-1920 that may otherwise have been lost were it not for Asbury. Where else would it be possible to read about the likes of Monk Eastman, Big Jack Zelig, Kid Twist, and Louie the Lump? Characters such as these are part of the American story. Implicitly, Asbury's book touches on the difficulties of 19th century ethnic immigration to America. Young Italian, Jewish, Irish men living in extreme urban pover More...

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Jan 05, 2008

Justin rated it:

A truly well researched, exciting and phenomenal book, Gangs Of New York is the history of New York gangs from the early 1800's to the 1920's. When I first read the book in college, the library had to order it from another library and I had to sign an agreement to check the book out. Copies were rather rare and they didn't want to lose theirs. Flash forward QUITE a few years and, thanks to Scorsese and his little abortion of a film, you can find this and Asbury's other works everywhere. I lo More...

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Mar 07, 2010

ben rated it:

Interesting, but repetitive. There are only so many times an author can introduce you to the baddest dude in New York city before it all starts running together. It's basically just a list of all these crazy guys and what they were known for, but sprinkled in are some great stories about how crazy Manhattan was in the 1800's. It also provides a lot of great rebuttals to bring up to people who say today's society is less civilized than in times past. For pretty much all of the 1800's 75% of M More...

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Dec 19, 2007

Tracey rated it:

VERY DETAILED look at the underworld of NYC from the 1850's to the 1920's, with a focus mainly on the Five Points & Bowery area. The political corruption of the Tammany Hall era contributed greatly to the growth & power of the gangs, leaving the police mostly powerless to bring justice to these downtrodden slums. The Civil War Draft Riots (the focus of the recent movie of the same name, I believe) are discussed on a day-by-day basis; small sketches of many of the colorful individuals of this 70- More...

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Jan 01, 2011

Lisa rated it:

This was a huge struggle to get through. Each page was the same as the next just listing different crimes and violent acts. It just blurred into one long, lethargic 'can't wait to get to the end' book. I was actually so glad to finish it which is a very bad sign. If I love a book I actually mourn it a little bit when I finish. But, this book was written in the late 1920's so it was going to be a challenge and I didn't particularly like the film either. I only picked it up to start my A-Z l More...

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Jan 07, 2009

Kenyon rated it:

An interesting history from what was a modern-day perspective. If you enjoyed the film version (which was loosely adapted from this) for the story line, you won't appreciate this book. However, if you are interested in the historical aspects of the development of New York from the underworld haven to the Disney-themed mecca that it is today, this is a very unique perspective on a long-forgotten historical era.

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Jan 27, 2011

Chilly rated it:

The nonfiction text from which the screenplay came. Bill the Butcher, The Dead Rabbits and the Civil War draft riots are mentioned, but they really flushed out a story for the fictional film.
Wow, how horrid and seedy NYC was from the mid-19th century to the first World War! The tenements sound like absolute hell on earth. Apparently muggers and "gangsters" got a crack at anyone who wandered into their neighborhoods, and knew politicians would most likely bail them out. The rea More...

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Nov 28, 2011

Carolyn rated it:

this was presented fairly matter-of-fact way of what happened in New York during those times, which I didn't have the patients to read. I may have enjoyed it more if I had ever been to New York and could relate more to the setting (besides watching the movie, which is only a small part of this book). But I think would be a great source for anyone interested in this time period and the crime therein.

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Feb 13, 2012

David rated it:

Originally published in the 1920s, Asbury's work, although of doubtful provenance and occasionally lurid focus, is still the sort of peek at the seamier side of Victorian Manhattan than you're likely to find anywhere else. Much of the information is anecdotal, and appear to draw as much from local legend and dubious newspaper accounts than anywhere else. Still, I found the discussion of the New York Draft Riots of 1863 to be well-presented, and the writing to be pretty gripping. I suspect Ric More...

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Jun 05, 2010

Charles rated it:

This is a long, dry but interesting chronicle of the deeds of infamous crooks and gangs of New York during the 1800's. It becomes onerous after awhile but still is interesting. If you want to have a broad understanding of the terrible conditions in New York and the utter hell of when lawlessness becomes the norm and the political machine uses this to perpetuate itself then this book is for you. The author also wrote "Gangs of Chicago" but one of these books is enough for me. Enjoy

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