The Gangs of New York Herbert Asbury

The Gangs of New York Herbert Asbury

Overview:

The Gangs of New York has long been hand-passed among its cult readership. It is a tour through a now unrecognizable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence cobbled, as Luc Sante has written, "from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research." Asbury presents the definitive work on this subject, an illumination of the gangs of old New York that ultimately gave rise to the modern Mafia and its depiction in films like The Godfather. "A universal history of infamy [that] contains all the confusion and cruelty of the barbarian cosmologies...."—Jorge Luis Borges "The tale is one of blood, excitement and debauchery."—The New York Times Book Review "The Gangs of New York is one of the essential works of the city...."—Luc Sante, The New York Review of Books

PRAISE FOR The Gangs of New York

"There has been no volume before Asbury’s devoted exclusively to a history of the New York gangs . . . Mr. Asbury’s book must be regarded as a distinct contribution to Americana. He has rummaged through old histories and reports and has searched the morgues of newspapers for his contribution . . . The tale is one of blood, excitement, and debauchery. . .

—John R. Chamberlain, New York Times

“One of the best American books of its kind. Mr. Asbury writes in a direct and engaging manner .. . He tells the story of the New York underworld of the past century, and his narrative is excellently presented in a book adorned with amusing pictures from the weeklies and newspapers.” —Edmund Pearson, The Saturday Review of Literature

“One devours its pages eagerly as though it were thrill-laden fiction rather than fact ... a work of immense interest whether the multifarious details of skull-cracking, blood-letting and general devilishness be minutely exact or not.”

—Booklist

“Herbert Asbury’s underworld is an underworld, and not a region of heroes. The stage and the screen will look to it in vain for the broken-heart-ed gentlemen who turn to crime out of a frustrated goodness, and there, practice honor among thieves, punctilio toward their victims, and eloquence upon the world at large. The book has been written by a newspaper man who does not mind denying himself of the pleasure of melodrama.” —Carl Van Doren, Books (NY Herald Tribune)

“Though New York was not an exception among big cities in breeding law-breakers in its slums, the species developed there was marked by distinctive features. . . . described with point, gusto and a sense of proportion ...”

—Times [London] Literary Supplement

“ . . . tells the story of the more spectacular gangsters, w'ith a quantity of picturesque detail . . .”

—Malcolm Cowley, The New Republic

“This is a fine piece of historical writing, and as full of interest to any lover of the picaresque as anyone has a right to ask.”

—Herschel Brickell, North American Review

"A distinct contribution to Americana. . . . The tale is one of blood, excitement, and debauchery.”
—The New York Times

"One of the essential works of the city. . . . It owns a direct pipeline to the city's unconscious.”
—Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

“A univeral history of infamy, the history of the gangs of New York contains all the confusion and cruelty of the barbarian cosmologies.”
—Jorge Luis Borges

ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!