Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
74th out of 535 books
—
558 voters
Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
by
Luc Sante
Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city's slums; the teeming streets--scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent...more
Paperback, 460 pages
Published
November 24th 2003
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published 1991)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,289)
In order to fully appreciate this book, you need to understand the context in which it was written: Luc Sante – who lived in New York City for many years, from the early 70’s to the late 90’s – experienced the New York of legend: fires, crime, blackouts, junkies, empty lots, derelict buildings. But he was also able to see and explore the mostly untouched artifacts from the previous century – the remnants of barrooms and theatres and tenement housing. In the 1980’s, when money and developers came...more
11 likes · like · see review
view all 3 comments
Mar 04, 2009
Dan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
yes
Recommended to Dan by:
NY times article
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. The book is about New York in the years 1850-1920 from the perspective of the poor, the corrupt, the criminal, the slum dwellers, the theater goers, the rioters and the bohemians (among others). After a slow start in which he covers the physical characteristics of NY as it expanded from Danish village to a city of tenements, he begins to the tell the ridiculously unlawful history of a young NY growing into the huge metropolis we know now. Its amazing to hear about...more
This has really enlivened my experience in NYC. Highly anecdotal and well-researched account of the street gangs, urchins, gamblers, actors, criminals and small-time entrepreneurs of Old New York. You meet the cast of characters who used to move amongst these very streets.
While Sante's view is unromantic, his stories show that pre-bureaucracy city allowed for moments of cultural thriving unseen today. Imagine audiences caring enough about theater to throw rotten produce at acts they didn't like...more
While Sante's view is unromantic, his stories show that pre-bureaucracy city allowed for moments of cultural thriving unseen today. Imagine audiences caring enough about theater to throw rotten produce at acts they didn't like...more
Luc Sante tells the story of the rabble in New York City roughly between 1840 and 1920, and it is an unflinching tale replete with sex and violence and crooked politics. He revels in these factors almost as much as the supposedly disgusted upright citizens who visit the featured low haunts so as to properly admonish against them. However, his tract does not smack of hypocrisy as the others did. He revels in every aspect of the human drama that played itself out on the Bowery and in the Tenderloi...more
Luc was brought in as a consultant on the Scorsese film "Gangs of New York", and you can certainly see why. Eye opening and shocking, Luc does a far better job of conveying the horrible conditions immigrants suffered under than more famous works like "The Jungle". Unlike a string of preachy, "socialism is the magic answer to everything" early and middle century diatribes put as "period novels", Luc dishes out the heartless facts. He also happens to make them more sad and compelling in the proces...more
I can't recommend this book enough. For people who are always pining for 'old New York' back when it was gritty, dirty, and dangerous, you'll find that even before those romanticized days of needles in the streets, prostitutes in Times Square, and violence around the corner, that the old old New York was far more interesting, and impressive in its squalor and decay.
Well researched, vividly described, and well thought out, this book paints the picture of a city one can hardly imagine living in n...more
Well researched, vividly described, and well thought out, this book paints the picture of a city one can hardly imagine living in n...more
An exhaustively researched and exceedingly well written history of "the darker side of life" in New York City circa mid-1800's through about 1920, this should be on the book shelf of any SERIOUS New York City history buff and anyone else interested in the history of crime and vice in urban culture in America.
From the book's back cover:
"Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, a...more
From the book's back cover:
"Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, a...more
An interesting anecdotal look at the underbelly of New York City during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It succeeds in conveying the flavor of the squalor and the brutality of the city's past, but Sante's history falls victim to it's colorful details. The structure of the book, with each element of the underworld -- saloons, prostitution, gangs -- getting its own chapter, necessarily leads to a surfeit of repetition and disconnected repeat appearances by prominent players. List of names...more
An exhaustively researched portrait of the New York of the nineteenth and early twentieth century which ignores the rise of the boosters and big business and concentrates on the city's vast underbelly. The "anything goes" atmosphere of the period is striking as the young nation began to find its feet, although New York was, as now, more of an international city state than an intrinsically American city.
This is the period depicted in the Scorsese film "Gangs of New York" and just as that film is...more
This is the period depicted in the Scorsese film "Gangs of New York" and just as that film is...more
Sante's "Low Life" is a direct descendant of Asbury's "Gangs of New York", and like its predecessor, it does a good job telling the story of New York's underbelly during the 19th and early 20th Century. Sante is better than Asbury in many ways– he extends his exploration far beyond crime, delving into subjects as diverse as gambling, geography, politics, drinking, theater, and immigration. But like Asbury, he can get a little listy, and sometimes piles on too many anecdotes or names, and that ma...more
I am a huge fan of historical writing, especially social history. I care about the broader political context that informs most history, but I also really want to know about the little things, too - what people ate, what they were wearing, what they did for fun, how they lived day-to-day. This book will give a sense of all of that (plus the politics) & more.
Luc Sante was an advisor on the movie, The Gangs of New York, & if you keep the way that movie looked in your head you might get a se...more
Luc Sante was an advisor on the movie, The Gangs of New York, & if you keep the way that movie looked in your head you might get a se...more
This book made me geek out so intensely I went for a walk in Lower Manhattan just to try and imagine what it must have been like in the late 19th century.
The most poignant for me was learning how below the Verrazano Bridge there is an artificial ledge that was built from the wreckage of condemned tenement apartment buildings. The rubble is full of various organisms that are particularly attractive to fish, so, as Sante writes, "The most hostile environment proves the most fecund: having nurture...more
The most poignant for me was learning how below the Verrazano Bridge there is an artificial ledge that was built from the wreckage of condemned tenement apartment buildings. The rubble is full of various organisms that are particularly attractive to fish, so, as Sante writes, "The most hostile environment proves the most fecund: having nurture...more
One of the real strengths of this urban history is that we don't really need to know the city, and Sante does not make too many assumptions on that front. In doing so, he is able to take us inside a tale of New York that few know in any detail to show us the precariousness, the risks and dangers of the late 19th century city. In places, the text gets quite dense, but the richness of the stories Sante has to tell kept me going through that dense-ness. It also, I have since discovered, a fine thin...more
Born in Belgium, Santé’s take on New York and the down-and-dirty roots of its old city is a pleasure to read. Though there are no shortages of New York history books for the taking, Santé’s perspective and writing style make this book a worthwhile purchase: his gory, lurid descriptions of New York’s underbelly, from saloons to drug dens to gambling and prostitution, are framed by the political upheaval, architecture and literature of the era. Bonus: black and white photographs from the 19th cen...more
This book "had me at hello"--specifically, the forward was so passionate and intriguing I knew I was going to love the book itself. And it did not disppoint. The author's interest in his subject is so apperent you can't help getting swept up in his enthusiasm. The writing is almost elegiac. The research and level of detail is rich but so evocative it never gets dry. I will admit to being more interested in some sections more than others but each section is delivered with the same about of vigor....more
Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city's slums; the teeming streets--scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape.
Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topo...more
Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topo...more
This book is stuffed with odd little anecdotes, some only one or two sentences long, about the lower class of Manhattan during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The descriptions are so ceaseless and the tone very distant from the subjects so that you feel as though Sante is using pointillism from a bird's eye view. I'll probably hop around the book because not all the nitty-gritty descriptions interest me, but, oh boy, there are some hilarious, hilarious passages. Example:
"This hostelry later b...more
"This hostelry later b...more
Low Life is a history of New York City's underbelly - the gambling, corrupt cops, tenements, prostitutes, etc. While a wonderful premise for a book, the execution rarely rises above the level of a catalog. Each chapter is basically a list (Smelly Joe did X on Houston, rival gang leader did Y on Broadway), making for horribly tedious reading. The one chapter I did like was about the draft riots. If you're interested in New York history, I'd recommend the PBS documentary ("New York") instead.
1 like · like · see review
Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux 1991)(974.71) is a fascinating account of New York City 1840-1913 in Manhattan. The book includes overviews of crime, gangs, politics, gambling, liquor and drug sales, and was the basis of the movie "The Gangs of New York." My personal favorite discovery is the title of a song sung on the bars about 1910: "Teach Our Baby That I'm Dead" (p. 137).
I loved this book and this reminds me I should reread it. Sante brings alive the New York of my immigrant grandparents. He reminds us how relatively young the city is and how recent its enormous strides into commerce, culture and refinement. Anyone who loves NY like I do or who has family history there should read this fascinating, well written, carefully researched work. It's a real page turner too!
Dirty, haunting, evocative and occasionally quite funny, this is absolutely one of the most entertaining histories I've ever read. It's an easy add to my personal all-time favorite non-fiction roster. As soon as I finished reading it, I literally went back and read the whole thing over again.
Also, don't skip the afterword in the new edition. It's a completely gorgeous piece of memoir.
Also, don't skip the afterword in the new edition. It's a completely gorgeous piece of memoir.
The best nonfiction, whether it's about antiquity or the present, informs today. I don't look at the same NYC as I did before I read Sante's book. I am now haunted by an endless procession of the city's nameless ghosts: tenement dwellers, con men, gangsters, prostitutes, Bowery boys, rioters, drunks, politicos, anarchists, mayhem men and the rest.
Which leads me to the question: How did the city become so tame in comparison to its past? Will another history be written about how this lawless, diso...more
Which leads me to the question: How did the city become so tame in comparison to its past? Will another history be written about how this lawless, diso...more
Super interesting read about late 1800s/early 1900s Manhattan, and how it became such a seedy place for a while. Fans of the film Gangs of New York will recognize a lot of names, and I think I inspired my bartender roommate to name some drinks about some characters from the "Saloons" chapter. I found the tenements, wages for prostitution, and living conditions thoroughly shocking.
Stories about gangsters and corruption in NYC from the Dutch settlers through the 19th Century. More to anecdotal than narrative -- Rather than presenting a coherent history, Luc Sante's style in this book is closer to, "Let me tell you all about the crazy shit that went down!" But the crazy shit is highly entertaining.
This is without a doubt my favorite book. It's the story of the history of America told from the underbelly. It's the history of many of our families, who came in droves through Ellis Island and lived in the Lower East Side as or among criminals. It is our forbidden history, one that gets skipped over in school.
Jan 09, 2009
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
I've glanced through this book. Its one that all people sort of like me or at least who will conversate with me tend to like. They are correct in liking this book. He did the research work of ten men, and is able to make things come to life in a cogent manner. Now I see why Luc Sante is a heavy hitter.
An account of crime-ridden NYC in the eighteen and early nineteen hundreds; some chapters, gambling and gangs, I skipped and others, on prostitution and entertainment, weren’t long enough. Some horrifying things happened in this city back in the day, to where the NYPD seem pale in comparison to some of the ruling forces in the city way back when. One fact I especially liked is that 5th Av is built exactly halfway in the island of Manhattan, equidistant from the two rivers surrounding it; when th...more
Disappointing. This author took a guaranteed grand slam of a topic, and destroyed all of its potential through poor organization, sensationalism, and total lack of historical framing. It serves only to note the existence of phenomena you might want to look up in a much better source.
After reading Low Life I was reminded why no crime in America should ever be thought of as shocking or new. It has all been done before. This book is a great catalog and history of the underbelly of New York. Luc Sante chronicles the murders, drinking, corruption and whoring with a dry wit. The descriptions of some of the characters are priceless. An example:
"Sadie the Goat, a former East Side barfly best known for having had an ear chewed off in a fight by the formidable Gallus Mag, of the Hole...more
"Sadie the Goat, a former East Side barfly best known for having had an ear chewed off in a fight by the formidable Gallus Mag, of the Hole...more
I read this book for the US History thesis paper. It is about life in NYC from the 1840s to 1919. I think that is very interesting because it portrays the city in a way that many people don't perceive as. Many people think that NYC is great and glamorous, but there are parts where things aren't as fancy and as beautiful. NYC was very different back then because the economy wasn't as great especially after 2 World Wars. There was prostitution, gambling, drugs and drinking. Those still exist today...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
