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Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
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 topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era's opportunities for vice and entertainment--theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling and prostitution; Part Three investigates the forces of law and order which did and didn't work to contain the illegalities; Part Four counterposes the city's tides of revolt and idealism against the city as it actually was.
Low Life provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was actually like in its salad days. But it's more than simpy a book about New York. It's one of the most provocative books about urban life ever written--an evocation of the mythology of the quintessential modern metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York's past but about the present and future of all cities.
Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era's opportunities for vice and entertainment--theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling and prostitution; Part Three investigates the forces of law and order which did and didn't work to contain the illegalities; Part Four counterposes the city's tides of revolt and idealism against the city as it actually was.
Low Life provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was actually like in its salad days. But it's more than simpy a book about New York. It's one of the most provocative books about urban life ever written--an evocation of the mythology of the quintessential modern metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York's past but about the present and future of all cities.
414 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Lucy Sante
97 books206 followersLucy Sante was born in Verviers Belgium and emigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. Since 1984, she has been a teacher and writer, and frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. Her publications include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, and The Factory of Facts and Folk Photography. She currently teaches creative writing and the history of photography at Bard College in New York State.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 236 reviews
February 18, 2015
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.
Then, in the 1980’s, when money and developers came back to the city, and young people subsidized by their parents began moving into expensive renovated lofts in SoHo, Sante saw that the makeup of New York would be changed forever. The history of a city coming of age in the industrial era and all of the inherent struggles would be lost on the newcomers. As he puts it, "I could look across Twelfth Street at the vacant lot where the bus garage had been and imagine in its place a high-rise with a terraced café on its street-level plaza, filled with blond California people in brightly colored clothing for whom the world could just as well have been created yesterday." Thus, Low Life was conceived, and "to prevent amnesia from setting in," Sante set out to revive a forgotten history of New York City.
This perspective is not gained until the afterword, however, and in order to get that far you have to slog through some nearly impenetrable chapters. And although the characters revealed within are interesting enough, and the research is extensive, the stories are presented mechanically and without much character or verve. The absence of a single compelling narrative makes it doubly tough to plow through the at-times information-heavy middle.
The book covers the many aspects of New York life from 1840 – 1919 with a focus on the Bowery and the Lower East Side, the epicenter of underclass life during that time. Through saloon and theatre culture, prostitution, gangs, police, politics, drugs, gambling, bohemia and more, Sante weaves together an anecdotal history using the most notorious personalities and institutions of the day. We learn about child gangs, sailor kidnapping, barroom swindling tactics, whimsical theater acts, and the now infamous draft riots. It’s admittedly a pop history and not based on certain facts, but Sante succeeds in bringing to life the dark realities of the time.
The amount of information and the overlapping of topics seems disorganized and can be overwhelming, but in the end you’re left with a clear portrait of the corrupt, murderous, desperate, swindling, drunken destitution and madness of the city all jumbled together and piled into flammable buildings and narrow city streets. For better or worse, it’s a world apart from the PG-13 New York we see today, and it’s a history that all New Yorkers and visitors should be aware of.
I personally will never again walk through the rapidly changing streets of the Lower East Side – or anywhere in New York City, for that matter – without thinking twice about what has happened there, and so Sante has achieved his desired effect. The cobblestone streets are still there; we’ve just paved over them.
Then, in the 1980’s, when money and developers came back to the city, and young people subsidized by their parents began moving into expensive renovated lofts in SoHo, Sante saw that the makeup of New York would be changed forever. The history of a city coming of age in the industrial era and all of the inherent struggles would be lost on the newcomers. As he puts it, "I could look across Twelfth Street at the vacant lot where the bus garage had been and imagine in its place a high-rise with a terraced café on its street-level plaza, filled with blond California people in brightly colored clothing for whom the world could just as well have been created yesterday." Thus, Low Life was conceived, and "to prevent amnesia from setting in," Sante set out to revive a forgotten history of New York City.
This perspective is not gained until the afterword, however, and in order to get that far you have to slog through some nearly impenetrable chapters. And although the characters revealed within are interesting enough, and the research is extensive, the stories are presented mechanically and without much character or verve. The absence of a single compelling narrative makes it doubly tough to plow through the at-times information-heavy middle.
The book covers the many aspects of New York life from 1840 – 1919 with a focus on the Bowery and the Lower East Side, the epicenter of underclass life during that time. Through saloon and theatre culture, prostitution, gangs, police, politics, drugs, gambling, bohemia and more, Sante weaves together an anecdotal history using the most notorious personalities and institutions of the day. We learn about child gangs, sailor kidnapping, barroom swindling tactics, whimsical theater acts, and the now infamous draft riots. It’s admittedly a pop history and not based on certain facts, but Sante succeeds in bringing to life the dark realities of the time.
The amount of information and the overlapping of topics seems disorganized and can be overwhelming, but in the end you’re left with a clear portrait of the corrupt, murderous, desperate, swindling, drunken destitution and madness of the city all jumbled together and piled into flammable buildings and narrow city streets. For better or worse, it’s a world apart from the PG-13 New York we see today, and it’s a history that all New Yorkers and visitors should be aware of.
I personally will never again walk through the rapidly changing streets of the Lower East Side – or anywhere in New York City, for that matter – without thinking twice about what has happened there, and so Sante has achieved his desired effect. The cobblestone streets are still there; we’ve just paved over them.
July 17, 2012
This is a fascinating tour of New York's Bowery which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a hotbed of gambling, prostitution, and nefarious cons working every conceivable angle on the city's unsuspecting and credulous. It is a breathtaking and enormously entertaining catalog of roguery, well written and researched, that left this reader filled with admiration. Highly recommended.
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September 27, 2022Even as I mythologize the pre-Giuliani New York, Sante, in the midst of all that, sought to go deeper, to the even more mythical New York of Tammany Hall bagmen and Five Points switchblade artists and P.T. Barnum's elephants stampeding through the burning city during the draft riots. It's a wonderfully gruesome compendium of anecdotes -- as I read, I paused to recite particularly visceral passages to colleagues and copines, stories about eye-gouging equipment, a whore only known as "Pickles" running amok, you get the idea.
I've long been a fan of the Dollop podcast -- for those who don't know, a very funny, very explicitly leftist take on the assorted atrocities of American history -- and Sante's book is absolutely in that vein (and if you are a fan, Oofty Goofty makes an appearance in Low Life). Because the shit they teach us in school, whether that's Marbury v. Madison or the importance of the Battle of Antietam, is nowhere near as weird or as entertaining as the actual grisliness and sociopathy of our past.
I've long been a fan of the Dollop podcast -- for those who don't know, a very funny, very explicitly leftist take on the assorted atrocities of American history -- and Sante's book is absolutely in that vein (and if you are a fan, Oofty Goofty makes an appearance in Low Life). Because the shit they teach us in school, whether that's Marbury v. Madison or the importance of the Battle of Antietam, is nowhere near as weird or as entertaining as the actual grisliness and sociopathy of our past.
December 12, 2022
Night is forgotten and endlessly repeated; it is glorious and it sits next door to death.
After a scintillating introduction Low Life slipped into the mundane, a survey of 19C journalism rather than an exploration itself of Manhattan's less becoming aspects--which ultimately was a list of ethnically robust names. Such a list was then attached to some sociological blight. Indeed this was two-star experience until the splendid section on bohemian life. That should have been the focus of this work, not an insouciant inventory of vice and corruption.
This work is supposed to be a compendium of ghosts, the spectral legacy of a metropolis built overnight, being a Golden Door which charged double to those weary masses. My reading alternated between boredom and anger, given the poetic possibilities of the subject, a subject one Lewis Allan Reed called a circus and a sewer. Sante missed that chance.
After a scintillating introduction Low Life slipped into the mundane, a survey of 19C journalism rather than an exploration itself of Manhattan's less becoming aspects--which ultimately was a list of ethnically robust names. Such a list was then attached to some sociological blight. Indeed this was two-star experience until the splendid section on bohemian life. That should have been the focus of this work, not an insouciant inventory of vice and corruption.
This work is supposed to be a compendium of ghosts, the spectral legacy of a metropolis built overnight, being a Golden Door which charged double to those weary masses. My reading alternated between boredom and anger, given the poetic possibilities of the subject, a subject one Lewis Allan Reed called a circus and a sewer. Sante missed that chance.
November 16, 2020
I put off reading this because I have read many similar books like Gangs of New York and Five Points. This was the best of the three. The first book read like a Walter Winchell sensationalist dispatch, whereas the latter was somewhat academic in tone.
Sante lived in New York city during the gritty years when an entire apartment could be rented for $100 per month. The 1970s pioneers did not question why a bathtub and a steam iron were standard kitchen appliances. However, a lot of materials from the Gay '90s were still hiding in plain sight. When the old school tenants died, the landlords just left their possessions on the street. These were appropriated by others, and it's how the author came into possession of some primary source materials.
This led him to a more organized search of memoirs and letters which described the dives and flop houses of the Bowery of the 1820s through the 1860s, and later, the Tenderloin (the Red Light District between 23rd and 52nd street bordered by Broadway and 6th Avenue); which usurped the Bowery's pre-eminence as the premiere nightlife spot.
Though the book was written in the 1980s, an afterword was added in 2003 which references the fact that the tenements were already becoming luxury living for a new kind of Bohemian. In fact, gentrification was nothing new as it had been happening in the West Village as early as 1913. However, the "gentrification on steroids," had yet to happen.
It would be interesting to know what he would say in 2020.
Sante lived in New York city during the gritty years when an entire apartment could be rented for $100 per month. The 1970s pioneers did not question why a bathtub and a steam iron were standard kitchen appliances. However, a lot of materials from the Gay '90s were still hiding in plain sight. When the old school tenants died, the landlords just left their possessions on the street. These were appropriated by others, and it's how the author came into possession of some primary source materials.
This led him to a more organized search of memoirs and letters which described the dives and flop houses of the Bowery of the 1820s through the 1860s, and later, the Tenderloin (the Red Light District between 23rd and 52nd street bordered by Broadway and 6th Avenue); which usurped the Bowery's pre-eminence as the premiere nightlife spot.
Though the book was written in the 1980s, an afterword was added in 2003 which references the fact that the tenements were already becoming luxury living for a new kind of Bohemian. In fact, gentrification was nothing new as it had been happening in the West Village as early as 1913. However, the "gentrification on steroids," had yet to happen.
It would be interesting to know what he would say in 2020.
April 12, 2023
Never let anyone tell you how great it was back in the good old days, when people were honest, without any of the modern world’s rampant scams and crime. Tell them to read more history. They can start here.
Scams and crime and other assorted bad elements have always been around, but they may have reached a crescendo in NYC’s lower east side, notably in the Bowery, in the mid-to-late 19th century, where the crushing overpopulation and poverty gave rise to all manner of desperation. Gangs ruled. Thousands of cons were invented, and whichever ones were already around were perfected. But a lot of it was by design—it was also where one went for all manner of vice, including but not limited to drinking, drugs, gambling, prostitution. Lucy Sante writes that there were two industries: larceny and entertainment. Visitors might have an exciting weekend, and/or they might wake up in an alley stripped of everything they were carrying (and wearing). How much of it was legal didn’t really matter, police attitudes ranged from complicit to corrupt.
Sante’s book is essentially a big catalog of all of this, with loads of anecdotes, some probably apocryphal, but many probably not. More generally it’s a fascinating insight into a truly crazy time and place, that held on to much of its dark reputation until well into the 20th century. In the fantastic opening and closing essays she expresses a sort of odd nostalgia for it, as she realized how much the character of the neighborhood was changing in the 1980s. Like a lot of young city residents of the ‘60s and ‘70s who wanted to be in New York but couldn’t really afford it, she lived there herself, in admittedly much worse conditions than she’d tolerate when older. She now lives comfortably upstate, but could move back if she wanted. There are now more than enough legal vices, and, more influentially, a lot more money. I took a trip up to NYC a few months ago and stayed in a cool modern hotel right in the Bowery. There are some lingering notes of the neighborhood’s checkered past, and the occasional shady character around. But we did plenty of walking around the lower east side and elsewhere over a few days, and at no point was I threatened, scammed, duped, robbed, assaulted, or otherwise felt at all unsafe. They had some faux underground hip clothing store across the street doing a release at the time, and people were lined up around the block posting selfies and doing all the free viral marketing that company could want. The area Sante describes as the epicenter of seediness is now home to a Nordstrom Rack. Gentrification won.
Scams and crime and other assorted bad elements have always been around, but they may have reached a crescendo in NYC’s lower east side, notably in the Bowery, in the mid-to-late 19th century, where the crushing overpopulation and poverty gave rise to all manner of desperation. Gangs ruled. Thousands of cons were invented, and whichever ones were already around were perfected. But a lot of it was by design—it was also where one went for all manner of vice, including but not limited to drinking, drugs, gambling, prostitution. Lucy Sante writes that there were two industries: larceny and entertainment. Visitors might have an exciting weekend, and/or they might wake up in an alley stripped of everything they were carrying (and wearing). How much of it was legal didn’t really matter, police attitudes ranged from complicit to corrupt.
Sante’s book is essentially a big catalog of all of this, with loads of anecdotes, some probably apocryphal, but many probably not. More generally it’s a fascinating insight into a truly crazy time and place, that held on to much of its dark reputation until well into the 20th century. In the fantastic opening and closing essays she expresses a sort of odd nostalgia for it, as she realized how much the character of the neighborhood was changing in the 1980s. Like a lot of young city residents of the ‘60s and ‘70s who wanted to be in New York but couldn’t really afford it, she lived there herself, in admittedly much worse conditions than she’d tolerate when older. She now lives comfortably upstate, but could move back if she wanted. There are now more than enough legal vices, and, more influentially, a lot more money. I took a trip up to NYC a few months ago and stayed in a cool modern hotel right in the Bowery. There are some lingering notes of the neighborhood’s checkered past, and the occasional shady character around. But we did plenty of walking around the lower east side and elsewhere over a few days, and at no point was I threatened, scammed, duped, robbed, assaulted, or otherwise felt at all unsafe. They had some faux underground hip clothing store across the street doing a release at the time, and people were lined up around the block posting selfies and doing all the free viral marketing that company could want. The area Sante describes as the epicenter of seediness is now home to a Nordstrom Rack. Gentrification won.
February 6, 2012
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 are followed by yet more names, all of which bear little to distinguish them from one another. I came away with a sense that Isaiah Rynder was an important figure in Manhattan's criminal life, but I cannot tell you when his power was at its height. This lack of cohesive story telling left me historically unmoored and overwhelmed.
I was also disappointed with Sante's lack of sociological perspective and refusal to provide perspective on the similarities parallel subcultures in other cities of the time and the developing societies of today that are troubled by poverty and its attendant crime. I came away with the sense that Sante believes New York to be unique, but he did nothing to convince me to share in that judgment.
I was also disappointed with Sante's lack of sociological perspective and refusal to provide perspective on the similarities parallel subcultures in other cities of the time and the developing societies of today that are troubled by poverty and its attendant crime. I came away with the sense that Sante believes New York to be unique, but he did nothing to convince me to share in that judgment.
December 17, 2020
Books about the bad old days of New York City are my comfort food reading. Luc Sante's "Low Life" is another good addition to my collection. I like the way he presents the city of old in topical chapters such as "Gangland", "Saloon Culture" and "Bohemia." The best is at the end when the author speaks of his youthful life in the city in the 1970s and 80s. His description of walking empty downtown streets at night, envisioning how it must have looked 100 years earlier, hit home with me. So much of NYC history is still there, you just have to know how to look for it.
June 27, 2022
3.5 rounded up.
March 28, 2007
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. Imagine Manhattan a true patchwork of ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods, from places we don't even know about today. Imagine an afternoon walk around downtown taking you through several of these. Not one bit like today.
Sante doesn't go into it, but from reading this I realized how much less organized life was in the pre-modern city. Though today's poor are often mired in debt, bureaucracy, and correctional facilities, there is still a state structure that at least tries, however ineptly, to account for them. We have housing laws instead of shantytowns. Welfare instead of orphans selling paper flowers on every corner. Clean, running water to even the most meager housing instead of massive typhoid outbreaks. While some aspects seem to be with us still--gang wars to protect crime precincts, for example--one does appreciate that low was much lower back then, and that the project of NYC to this day is one of constant vigilence by and on behalf of those whom the system has failed, and a constant increase in state ivolvment and regulation. Whether you find this arc hopeful or repugnant when drawn over the national story, in NYC it has been a true necessity, a check on the unspeakable oppression a city can inflict. While some Americans outside of New York may feel self-reliant, and claim that state meddling only impedes the ability of individuals and communities to do their thing, in NYC no one is under the impression that we are that unconnected.
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. Imagine Manhattan a true patchwork of ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods, from places we don't even know about today. Imagine an afternoon walk around downtown taking you through several of these. Not one bit like today.
Sante doesn't go into it, but from reading this I realized how much less organized life was in the pre-modern city. Though today's poor are often mired in debt, bureaucracy, and correctional facilities, there is still a state structure that at least tries, however ineptly, to account for them. We have housing laws instead of shantytowns. Welfare instead of orphans selling paper flowers on every corner. Clean, running water to even the most meager housing instead of massive typhoid outbreaks. While some aspects seem to be with us still--gang wars to protect crime precincts, for example--one does appreciate that low was much lower back then, and that the project of NYC to this day is one of constant vigilence by and on behalf of those whom the system has failed, and a constant increase in state ivolvment and regulation. Whether you find this arc hopeful or repugnant when drawn over the national story, in NYC it has been a true necessity, a check on the unspeakable oppression a city can inflict. While some Americans outside of New York may feel self-reliant, and claim that state meddling only impedes the ability of individuals and communities to do their thing, in NYC no one is under the impression that we are that unconnected.
August 9, 2013
Meh. This book is a lot of lists of names and places and snippets of song lyrics, and that's about it. Even the pictures are lame. Whole is definitely much less than the sum of the preposterously-overresearched and poorly-edited parts here. And whatever you do, do NOT read the pretentious and completely clueless Afterword added in 2003.
Of course, if you want to really get a sense of this fascinating, too little known, yet very formative period in New York City's history, you probably already know that you just have to read the masterful The Alienist. As importantly, I highly highly recommend the magnificent and informative Automats, Taxi Dancers, and Vaudeville, which accomplishes in 1/3 the space and with 10x the intelligence what this book tried but failed miserably to do. Automats author David Freeland occasionally gives walking tours of New York focused on turn of the century history, which I also highly recommend.
Of course, if you want to really get a sense of this fascinating, too little known, yet very formative period in New York City's history, you probably already know that you just have to read the masterful The Alienist. As importantly, I highly highly recommend the magnificent and informative Automats, Taxi Dancers, and Vaudeville, which accomplishes in 1/3 the space and with 10x the intelligence what this book tried but failed miserably to do. Automats author David Freeland occasionally gives walking tours of New York focused on turn of the century history, which I also highly recommend.
February 3, 2023
I've tried reading this book a few times and I think I have to throw in the towel once and for all. It's considered a classic of New York City history, but it's not clear to me how much of Sante's representations are historically accurate. She's* clearly spent a ton of time with the primary sources, but she will simultaneously quote a primary source and then say how the primary sources were untrustworthy because of the moral panics of the time. So it's difficult to know how much to trust. I also found the style difficult to dig into. When I carried it in my purse for like two weeks without once cracking it, I had to admit I wasn't going to try again.
Two stars because it had at least one insight I found really valuable, and I don't so much think it's bad as think it's super not for me.
*Sante now goes by Lucy and uses she/her pronouns.
Two stars because it had at least one insight I found really valuable, and I don't so much think it's bad as think it's super not for me.
*Sante now goes by Lucy and uses she/her pronouns.
May 6, 2014
"Night is forgotten and endlessly repeated; it is glorious and it sits next door to death."
December 16, 2019
Low Life is a biography of NYC from the early 19th century until the teens of the twentieth.
Luc Sante breaks New York down into individual chapters that display the foundations and structure of what made the city what it is today. Housing, Gangland, Cops, Homelessness, Religion, Theatre, Gentrification, Gambling, immigration, Politics, Drugs, Finance, to name a few of the topics delved into.
This is a really well written social study and biography of one of the worlds most important cities.
Highly recommended.
I believe London and New York are two of the most historically important cities in the modern world. I’ve never been to NYC, but have been fascinated in its history, criminal history, immigration and architecture for years. I’m hoping to get there in 2020.
Luc Sante breaks New York down into individual chapters that display the foundations and structure of what made the city what it is today. Housing, Gangland, Cops, Homelessness, Religion, Theatre, Gentrification, Gambling, immigration, Politics, Drugs, Finance, to name a few of the topics delved into.
This is a really well written social study and biography of one of the worlds most important cities.
Highly recommended.
I believe London and New York are two of the most historically important cities in the modern world. I’ve never been to NYC, but have been fascinated in its history, criminal history, immigration and architecture for years. I’m hoping to get there in 2020.
March 4, 2009
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 a time in this country when there were no police (or only extremely corrupt police), fire engine companies were more like gangs that fought each other at the site of a fire for the "honor" of being the most effective fire fighters, huge riots frequently tore the city apart and intense poverty plagued the cities and was seen as symptoms of moral failings by the upper classes. This book is filled with cool little tidbits, like how the name "cop" became applied to police (the first police sergeants began wearing copper stars to ID themselves to the public), info on the Yankees baseball team being purchased and brought to town by two corrupt gamblers, insights into drug usage and sexuality in early America, etc. My only complaint is that the author's writing style is very highfalutin (ironically, considering the subject) and it becomes annoying when he uses words like "quondam" instead of "former" or "sobriquet" instead of "nickname," or any number of obscure words that I don't think added much to the book or the writers style. However, I got used to it after a few chapters. In conclusion, this book was very interesting and a fun read, highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in urban issues, crime, or would like a interesting look at our past before we became such a civilized, rich, lawful country (wink wink).
October 9, 2009
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 sense of the New York he is writing about. Sante explores Manhattan in four aspects from 1840 to 1919 - Topography, vice & entertainment, law & order, & revolt & idealism. Jammed into these four aspects are stories of classic New York characters like Boss Tweed & Butcher Poole, but also many less well-known people like Bald Jack Rose & Leftie Louie.
Sante argues that New York is all about the New & tends to ignore its history, but that its ghosts are drifting there - just below the surface. This book captures these ghosts & makes them visible to the reader through clear prose & fascinating stories. This is an excellent example of what good writing & interesting social history can be to a reader. Fascinating & wonderful & you should go read it right now.
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 sense of the New York he is writing about. Sante explores Manhattan in four aspects from 1840 to 1919 - Topography, vice & entertainment, law & order, & revolt & idealism. Jammed into these four aspects are stories of classic New York characters like Boss Tweed & Butcher Poole, but also many less well-known people like Bald Jack Rose & Leftie Louie.
Sante argues that New York is all about the New & tends to ignore its history, but that its ghosts are drifting there - just below the surface. This book captures these ghosts & makes them visible to the reader through clear prose & fascinating stories. This is an excellent example of what good writing & interesting social history can be to a reader. Fascinating & wonderful & you should go read it right now.
February 23, 2010
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 makes some of his chapters a little slow. His focus is also exclusively on Manhattan, and mainly Manhattan below 59th Street, so if your interest extends beyond the Bowery and Broadway to Brooklyn or the Bronx, you'll need to find another source. Overall, though, Sante writes a very readable history– and his prose deserves special mention for its lyricism. At times, especially in the afterword when he's recalling his own experiences in the New York of the 70s and 80s, his voice has a Whitmanesque-quality that will ring in your ears.
Bonus: a few of the books that Sante mentions in the endpages were later brought back into print, probably because of his interest and the success of this book. I especially recommend "The Big Con", a wonderful look at grifting written in the 1940s, and anything written by Joseph Mitchell.
Bonus: a few of the books that Sante mentions in the endpages were later brought back into print, probably because of his interest and the success of this book. I especially recommend "The Big Con", a wonderful look at grifting written in the 1940s, and anything written by Joseph Mitchell.
April 19, 2014
A decent overview of the history of New York's underworld, poverty and vices in the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries.
Although the subject matter would seem quite interesting, I thought the author approached it in a bit of a dry manner at times. For example, making a list of names of famous gangster in the Lower East Side without telling us anything about these people is useless for the reader. Perhaps it serves as documentation, but the reader of the book will likely not need nor remember such a list of names.
In my opinion, when writing a book for the general public, as this book seems to be aimed at, even the academic author must keep in mind that a reader is best served by compelling stories and storytelling. Some parts of this book accomplished that goal, while others did not. Also, I felt some chapters were a bit short compared to the wealth of possibilities each subject could offer. I suppose that is the downside of a general overview.
To be honest, I found the afterword much more compelling than the preceding chapters. The author discusses what it was like to live in the squalor of 1970s and 80s Lower East Side Manhattan. I'd love to hear more about that.
Although the subject matter would seem quite interesting, I thought the author approached it in a bit of a dry manner at times. For example, making a list of names of famous gangster in the Lower East Side without telling us anything about these people is useless for the reader. Perhaps it serves as documentation, but the reader of the book will likely not need nor remember such a list of names.
In my opinion, when writing a book for the general public, as this book seems to be aimed at, even the academic author must keep in mind that a reader is best served by compelling stories and storytelling. Some parts of this book accomplished that goal, while others did not. Also, I felt some chapters were a bit short compared to the wealth of possibilities each subject could offer. I suppose that is the downside of a general overview.
To be honest, I found the afterword much more compelling than the preceding chapters. The author discusses what it was like to live in the squalor of 1970s and 80s Lower East Side Manhattan. I'd love to hear more about that.
March 15, 2021
Todavía no entiendo como puedes escribir un libro tan aburrido de un tema, ciudad y periodo histórico tan interesante. Sobra información, falta un buen hilo conductor y es muy muy repetitivo.
April 22, 2022
If I was rating this book based on the sheer amount of information, it would get five stars. Low Life has a wealth of information on the city in the 1800s and early 1900s and anyone who wants to learn about old-time NYC will enjoy it. I certainly learned a lot and have plenty of fun facts to share at parties when the conversation dies down and the crowd looks ready to learn about 19th century suicide bars.
However, I also took a full year to get through this book. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing, which is overly poetic and indulgent at times, especially early in the book. I'd also find myself confused because Sante would mention a person or event and not explain it at all until the next chapter (or even multiple chapters later) meaning I wasn't totally sure what he was talking about unless I looked it myself. The book also has many lists of people and businesses that existed at the time. The names are interesting but a list of a dozen names that I don't know and that won't come up again can make for hard reading. It's also difficult to track which people's names I should actually remember, because some do appear again multiple chapters (and hundreds of names) after first mention. I'll admit I skimmed through a handful of paragraphs and by the end could barely convince myself to flip to the back to read Sante's tangential (and, hot take, potentially unnecessary) notes.
Through it all, I really enjoyed learning about old NYC. Giving me the opportunity to learn the extraordinary stories of the city's characters and locales made all of the author's transgressions forgivable and, if anything, made the book a better experience. Sante clearly loved that he had the chance to share this part of NYC's history and he wouldn't have done the history justice if he had written a book that any stray reader could just pick up and breeze through.
However, I also took a full year to get through this book. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing, which is overly poetic and indulgent at times, especially early in the book. I'd also find myself confused because Sante would mention a person or event and not explain it at all until the next chapter (or even multiple chapters later) meaning I wasn't totally sure what he was talking about unless I looked it myself. The book also has many lists of people and businesses that existed at the time. The names are interesting but a list of a dozen names that I don't know and that won't come up again can make for hard reading. It's also difficult to track which people's names I should actually remember, because some do appear again multiple chapters (and hundreds of names) after first mention. I'll admit I skimmed through a handful of paragraphs and by the end could barely convince myself to flip to the back to read Sante's tangential (and, hot take, potentially unnecessary) notes.
Through it all, I really enjoyed learning about old NYC. Giving me the opportunity to learn the extraordinary stories of the city's characters and locales made all of the author's transgressions forgivable and, if anything, made the book a better experience. Sante clearly loved that he had the chance to share this part of NYC's history and he wouldn't have done the history justice if he had written a book that any stray reader could just pick up and breeze through.
February 24, 2021
This book is one of the best about old New York I have read. It helps that the writer and I share a lot of interests. Who could resist a book with such a title as: Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York? I especially enjoyed the authors afterword where he took time to describe New York in the seventies, as it was when he lived there as a young man.
March 10, 2019
Indispensable.
December 11, 2023
Breezily entertaining look at the gritty low life of 19th-century Manhattan. Focusing mostly on the Bowery, Sante provides a highly readable overview of gangs, taverns, police, orphans, prostitutes, and drug abuse. Sante mostly avoids romanticizing this period, which is a feat. She is a vibrant writer, and what she lacks in scholarly rigor she certainly makes up for with liveliness and a bit of poetry.
July 12, 2019
It took me forever to finish this-recommended by Nicole Cliffe on Twitter, which means it's been a while since I've been off Twitter for a while. It's pretty workmanlike in its style, which is appealing for nonfiction. I enjoy reading this kind of very specific history
April 16, 2022
Such a disappointment! I was really looking forward to reading this book. It's ticks all the right boxes in terms of my interests - urban history, nyc, crime - yet it fell flat for me. What happened?
First, I must give Sante the credit he deserves for his amazing, meticulous research. Wow. He left no stone unturned. It must have been a lot of fun, doing all that fact-finding. So what's my problem if I think he includes so much worthwhile information?
In short, Sante has no idea how to take his voluminous amounts of data and turn it into a flowing, coherent narrative. While he can write a beautiful sentence at times, I could do less with the all the unknown vocabulary he used. He obviously never heard of the Mark Twain quote “Don’t use a five dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” Sante is a big fan of five dollar words. Keep a dictionary out if you plan to read this book.
He is a proponent of an "everything and the kitchen sink" style of writing. If he read about it in another book then he most certainly included it in his book. It's like he doesn't know the meaning of the word edit. There are too many facts - so many facts - that I started to think about how he could have better structured his book if he wanted to include so much in his text.
Maybe he could have used more of a reference format, focusing on lists and on short definitions of things and places and people. If you could stand to plow through the reams of details included, then this would be a good source for writing a novel about 19th century NYC. Sante has already done the research for you!
While I did enjoy and appreciate the random factoids I picked up reading this book, I don't have a true deep sense of the period. Rather, I would do well trotting out funny stories and facts during cocktail party chatter. That's my main takeaway - wacky trivia.
Great Gangster Names
The Lobster Kid
The Grabber
Ding Dong
Stumpy
Dopey
Humpty(he was a hunchback)
One Lung
Kid Twist
Cowlegged Sam
Slobbery JIm
Lefty Louie
Beansy
Dutch Hen
Tom the Mick
Gyp the Blood
Dago Frank
Cat Maggie (she filed her teeth into sharppoints the better to bite you with)
Pretty Kitty
Sadie the Goat(after someone bit her ear off, she saved it & wore it in a pouch around her neck)
Great Gang Names
The Dead Rabbits
Shirt Tails
Swamp Angels
Roach Guards
Plug Uglies
Whyos
Valentine Ring
The Sheeny Mob
The Daybreak Boys
The Dusters(who all did a bunch of cocaine)
Great Female Gang Names
Lady Barkers
Lady Flashers
Lady Liberties
Lady Gophers
Lady Locusts
Lady Truck Drivers
Uncommon Vocabulary
blind tiger: a bar
stuss: a Jewish card game
bagnio: a whorehouse
cloaca: a sewer
sachem: a high ranking Tammany Hall official
macadam: a road paved with broken stones
crimp: a person who specializes in drugging & robbing sailors
zouave jacket: uniform worn by the Algerian French Infantry
He defined none of those words, along with many, many, many other unfamiliar words and phrases. It's like he spent so many years researching the period that he forgot most people would not know what he was referring to.
Random Crazy Details
The Bowery is the only main NYC road to never have a church on it
Hobos didn't come to NYC very much because there weren't many locations where you could easily 'hop the rails'
There was a theater called The Grand Duke's Theater that was owned, managed & operated by a teenage boy gang called the Baxter St Dudes (Baby Face Willie was their leader). All the actors and writers and crew were boys.
There were lots of speciality bars catering to specific clientele. Bars just for prostitutes, bars just for little boys(with little girl prostitutes available), gay bars, "race mixing" bars where blacks & whites got drunk together. There was a bar where all thestaff were women dressed in tights.
There was a hotel that had trapdoors through which corpses could be dumped directly into the East River. So thoughtful for their murderous guests!
Once on the Bowery, a man yelled "That's the man that stole my watch!" and about 12 guys took off running. Haha.
First, I must give Sante the credit he deserves for his amazing, meticulous research. Wow. He left no stone unturned. It must have been a lot of fun, doing all that fact-finding. So what's my problem if I think he includes so much worthwhile information?
In short, Sante has no idea how to take his voluminous amounts of data and turn it into a flowing, coherent narrative. While he can write a beautiful sentence at times, I could do less with the all the unknown vocabulary he used. He obviously never heard of the Mark Twain quote “Don’t use a five dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” Sante is a big fan of five dollar words. Keep a dictionary out if you plan to read this book.
He is a proponent of an "everything and the kitchen sink" style of writing. If he read about it in another book then he most certainly included it in his book. It's like he doesn't know the meaning of the word edit. There are too many facts - so many facts - that I started to think about how he could have better structured his book if he wanted to include so much in his text.
Maybe he could have used more of a reference format, focusing on lists and on short definitions of things and places and people. If you could stand to plow through the reams of details included, then this would be a good source for writing a novel about 19th century NYC. Sante has already done the research for you!
While I did enjoy and appreciate the random factoids I picked up reading this book, I don't have a true deep sense of the period. Rather, I would do well trotting out funny stories and facts during cocktail party chatter. That's my main takeaway - wacky trivia.
Great Gangster Names
The Lobster Kid
The Grabber
Ding Dong
Stumpy
Dopey
Humpty(he was a hunchback)
One Lung
Kid Twist
Cowlegged Sam
Slobbery JIm
Lefty Louie
Beansy
Dutch Hen
Tom the Mick
Gyp the Blood
Dago Frank
Cat Maggie (she filed her teeth into sharppoints the better to bite you with)
Pretty Kitty
Sadie the Goat(after someone bit her ear off, she saved it & wore it in a pouch around her neck)
Great Gang Names
The Dead Rabbits
Shirt Tails
Swamp Angels
Roach Guards
Plug Uglies
Whyos
Valentine Ring
The Sheeny Mob
The Daybreak Boys
The Dusters(who all did a bunch of cocaine)
Great Female Gang Names
Lady Barkers
Lady Flashers
Lady Liberties
Lady Gophers
Lady Locusts
Lady Truck Drivers
Uncommon Vocabulary
blind tiger: a bar
stuss: a Jewish card game
bagnio: a whorehouse
cloaca: a sewer
sachem: a high ranking Tammany Hall official
macadam: a road paved with broken stones
crimp: a person who specializes in drugging & robbing sailors
zouave jacket: uniform worn by the Algerian French Infantry
He defined none of those words, along with many, many, many other unfamiliar words and phrases. It's like he spent so many years researching the period that he forgot most people would not know what he was referring to.
Random Crazy Details
The Bowery is the only main NYC road to never have a church on it
Hobos didn't come to NYC very much because there weren't many locations where you could easily 'hop the rails'
There was a theater called The Grand Duke's Theater that was owned, managed & operated by a teenage boy gang called the Baxter St Dudes (Baby Face Willie was their leader). All the actors and writers and crew were boys.
There were lots of speciality bars catering to specific clientele. Bars just for prostitutes, bars just for little boys(with little girl prostitutes available), gay bars, "race mixing" bars where blacks & whites got drunk together. There was a bar where all thestaff were women dressed in tights.
There was a hotel that had trapdoors through which corpses could be dumped directly into the East River. So thoughtful for their murderous guests!
Once on the Bowery, a man yelled "That's the man that stole my watch!" and about 12 guys took off running. Haha.
September 22, 2019
Finito il libro è stato un piacere riguardare il film Gangs of New York, l’ho visto con uno sguardo diverso, attento e sorpreso di molti particolari che non avevo colto precedentemente (Luc Sante è stato iI consulente storico di Martin Scorsese per il film)
September 9, 2019
I realise I begin a lot of my reviews of books that I rate highly with some version of "despite the length of time it took me to read this book..." because life and other books that need to be returned to the library promptly become hurdles. It is true for this book as well. But when I actually got a chance to sit down with it, a hundred pages flew by like nothing, because it is that engrossing. Of course because of the subject matter, but Sante organised hundreds of years of detailed history so carefully and his writing is as enjoyable as any great novelist. I wish he would write a New York novel, because it would be amazing.
September 1, 2011
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 became famous as the site of the murder of a local woman of uncertain age but dire condition, who was popularly nicknamed Shakespeare because for the price of a drink she could recite all the speeches of the major female roles in The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. This talent naturally led to wild speculations about her origins, with most of the locals maintaining that she was of noble birth, and the newspapers capitalized on such rumors. Likewise, her murder, never solved, was exoticized by being attributed to Jack the Ripper, come to New York on vacation."
"This hostelry later became famous as the site of the murder of a local woman of uncertain age but dire condition, who was popularly nicknamed Shakespeare because for the price of a drink she could recite all the speeches of the major female roles in The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. This talent naturally led to wild speculations about her origins, with most of the locals maintaining that she was of noble birth, and the newspapers capitalized on such rumors. Likewise, her murder, never solved, was exoticized by being attributed to Jack the Ripper, come to New York on vacation."
July 2, 2008
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 Tenderloin without the romanticism that can sometimes afflict an author writing at such a temporal distance. New york of the time was not pretty, and it was often violent, and Sante makes that very clear. He makes clear, too, that a lot more was going on than may have met the eye. After reading Low Life, I want to read more, so Sante has done his job.
September 30, 2018
Watching New York's past being erased during the real estate speculation craze of the Reagan era, Luc Sante looks back to an earlier period further below the surface, and its seamier side very much in particular. There are a number of idiosyncrasies here...repetition, long lists of names, abstruse terms without definitions, an unhelpful lack of maps...but the result is a lot of fun, showing that the putatively dangerous New York of the 1970s had its analog in the Bowery and Lower East Side of yesteryear. Sante brings a writer's eye to this endeavor, pointing out the colorful and humorous in what could have been a dry, police-blotter kind of work, but he still manages to draw some moralistic conclusions at the end of each chapter.
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