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by Karen Abbott

3.46 · rating details · 3,598 ratings · 748 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

Paperback, 400 pages

Published September 22nd 2010 by Random House Trade Paperbacks

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Jan 05, 2008

Desiree rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...moreAs 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

· review of another edition

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 kep...more

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Aug 28, 2007

Pete rated it

· review of another edition

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

· review of another edition

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,...moreI 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

· review of another edition

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 ma...more

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Mar 09, 2008

Alice rated it

· review of another edition

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:
...more

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Mar 06, 2008

Martin rated it

· review of another edition

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 runn...moreIn “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

· review of another edition

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 outl...more

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May 04, 2008

Pamela W rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Kir, Adele, even that hooker-lover Otis if she could bother to create a goodreads acct

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...more

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Sep 06, 2007

Sharon rated it

· review of another edition

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...more

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Jun 09, 2009

Jeannette rated it

· review of another edition

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

· review of another edition

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 do...more

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Nov 25, 2008

Lisa rated it

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...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Susan Howard rated it

· review of another edition

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 d...moreBookclub 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

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 p...more

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Jul 04, 2011

Gina rated it

· review of another edition

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...more

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Jun 19, 2011

Yasmin rated it

· review of another edition

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...more

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Nov 16, 2010

Judy rated it

· review of another edition

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 goo...more

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Sep 12, 2010

Chana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: american, history, memoirs-and-biographies

History, through and through. The author, Karen Abbott, in researching her family history, becomes interested in the possible fate of a great great aunt who disappeared in Chicago in 1905. Although we can't say what might have happened to this great great aunt with any certainty, the author takes us on an extensive tour of Chicago's Levee District, a place where many immigrant girls disappeared.

This is what the author herself says about her book,

"Most of the brot...more

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Jul 19, 2010

~ Jackson rated it

· review of another edition

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

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 ...more

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May 28, 2010

Sophia rated it

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 Chic...more

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Nov 11, 2009

Kathryn rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...more

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Aug 18, 2009

Beth rated it

· review of another edition

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 spotlig...more

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Jul 14, 2009

Steven Peterson rated it

· review of another edition

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 politic...moreWho 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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Feb 01, 2012

Scott Rhee rated it

· review of another edition

It's hard to believe that there was a time in American history where many of the major cities not only had open brothels but whole districts devoted to them. Prostitution was a business, and a flourishing one at that. One brothel in particular, the Everleigh Club in Chicago during the turn of the century, is the fascinating subject of Karen Abbot's "Sin in the Second City". The Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, were the famous madams of this brothel. It was so well-known and popular th...moreIt's hard to believe that there was a time in American history where many of the major cities not only had open brothels but whole districts devoted to them. Prostitution was a business, and a flourishing one at that. One brothel in particular, the Everleigh Club in Chicago during the turn of the century, is the fascinating subject of Karen Abbot's "Sin in the Second City". The Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, were the famous madams of this brothel. It was so well-known and popular that there was a waiting list of prostitutes hoping to become one of the Everleigh girls. Cultivating strong political relationships with many figures in local and federal government, enforcing strict rules and regulations for both the working girls and patrons of their establishment, and ensuring a safe and healthy work environment for their girls, the Everleigh sisters were clearly progressive thinkers and advocates for better working conditions for the ladies in the world's oldest profession. Besides proper health care, the Everleigh sisters also believed in education for their girls. Legitimizing the brothel was not to be, however, due to a reform movement that swept the nation at the time. Started primarily by ministers, politicians, and temperance-minded housewives, this movement began as a fear-driven attempt to eradicate the "white slave trade", which many saw as an epidemic of our nation's young women being kidnapped, raped, and forced to live out the rest of their (short) lives as prostitutes. Several famous books (and even a genre of "white slave trade" motion pictures) added fuel to an already out-of-control conflagration of misinformation and utter nonsense. According to "scientific" studies, the average life expectancy of a white slave (a ruined young lady forced into prostitution) was only five years. These young women either died from untreated venereal disease, suicide, or murder. Of course, it's telling that tied into this white slavery craze was a deep-rooted racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, as it was "well-known" that most white slavers were Italians or Jews. Brothel after brothel were shut down in highly-publicized raids, but relatively untouched was the charismatic and soft-spoken Everleigh sisters, who lived to be in their 80s and cultivated deep friendships with such famous literary figures as Theodore Dreiser and Irving Wallace. Abbot's book is as entertaining as it is scandalous, with a cast of colorful characters, including Vic Shaw, the loud-mouthed big-bosomed madam that hated the Everleigh sisters so much that she tried to frame them for murder... twice!; Big Jim Colossimo, a spaghetti-loving gangster who may or may not have been executed by his own bodyguard, a young Alphonse Capone; the Reverand Ernest Bell, a devout minister who almost single-handedly led the crusade against the evil brothel owners of Chicago; and a slew of others with names like Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin. "Sin in the Second City" is a fun little foray into the red-light district of American history. (less)

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Mar 20, 2009

Gail rated it

· review of another edition

"Nothing was safe here for a girl on her own. Not the train stations or streetcars, the 10 cent vaudeville houses or late night boat rides on Lake Michigan, the department stores or wine rooms or penny arcades, the theatrical or employment agencies, the nickel theaters or amusement parks or automobile rides with the boy she thinks she knows."

This is 1910 Chicago when the scare of white slavery was at its height. Introduced into the picture of a city full of vice and corru...more

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Sep 17, 2007

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-from-public-library, unfinished

It had some interesting information, but the book was full of so much foreshadowing that instead of being intrigued, I was annoyed. Also, it was written in a way that was compelling for the first few chapters, but not beyond. I wanted to know more about the lives of the prostitutes and how they viewed working in the Everleigh club. I wasn't that interested in the men that got protection money from the Everleigh sisters.

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Sep 01, 2009

Monique rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: non-prudes

Recommended to Monique by: Bookclub

OK, I'm amazed at how much I enjoyed this book. So much incredible detail (some of it pretty raw, but interesting nonetheless) on the lives of prostitutes at the turn of the century (the previous century). This book is so well researched and detailed. Based on author Karen Abbottt's descriptions, you can really picture the people who populate the book: the harlots, the madams, the ward bosses, the career politicians and prosecutors, and the religious zealots who make up the cast of (real life) c...more

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Dec 21, 2008

Ilana rated it

· review of another edition

I enjoyed parts of this book and loved learning some of the history of Chicago and prostitution in America, in general. I was really captured by the book when i first started reading it, but by the end was a little disappointed. As another reviewer wrote, I was more curious about some of the prostitutes' lives before and while working in the Everleigh. Also, I didn't feel I ever really got a grasp of how the Everleigh sisters got into the business in the first place. Maybe I missed something, bu...more

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