Robert's review
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
by Karen Abbott
Robert's review
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott
Robert's review
rating:
As an aficionado of Chicago history, I just had to read this one. (In the interest of disclosure and with a note of shameless self-promotion, I'm researching and writing a history that covers the same time period as "Sin in the Second City," though it will be a much different book.) "Sin" is a fascinating, richly written and well-researched look at the Everleigh Sisters and other prostitutes and madams of early 1900s Chicago. It's a must-read for Chicago history buffs, and will be eye-opening for those unfamiliar with the history. However, following in the footsteps of "Devil in the White City" author Erik Larsen, Abbott takes liberties with the way she assembles the facts into a credibility-straining narrative. Questionable anecdotes are presented as fact, a problem that would have remedied easily enough with just a little more attribution in the main text. If you read "Sin" with a somewhat skeptical eye and periodically check the endnotes to se...more
