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.
#534156 in Books Duneier Mitchell 2016-04-19 2016-04-19Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.24 x .4 x 6.34l; 1.00 #File Name: 0374161801304 pagesGhetto The Invention of a Place the History of an Idea
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Important; significant; readable bookBy Reader of social scienceThis is an absolutely wonderful book on the ghetto or perhaps I should say “ghettos;†plural; for the monograph makes it plain that the term has been used in a wide variety of ways with differing referents over the years. The book is very different from what Duneier has done exceedingly well before -- this book is like an intellectual history of a concept rather than an ethnographic investigation of a world. But qualitatively and thought-wise; it is on a par with his previous works. The last chapter is an utter tour de force; reminding us that we need to be specific and particular when we refer to some place as a ghetto (and what is limiting when using the concept as well); lest we undermine our own understanding of the place and the experience of those within it. Duneier brings things home in that regard with an elegant delineation of what is distinctive about the black ghetto in the U.S.; and what it would take in detail to do something ameliorative about it. I agree with others about the high quality of the writing as well.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Duneier not only writes with great precision and synergyBy Avram LessingAs an English teacher and theater director at a high school outside of Chicago; I don't read much non-fiction; but I found this book so incredible that I read it twice. My students who hear that word and everyday ("You're ghetto;" or "That's ghetto;") hardly know where the word comes from or how its meaning has shifted (to be fair; I knew little myself) over the last 500 years. My students and I found the idea of ghetto so compelling and important that it inspired us to write a play about it called CROSSING AUSTIN BOULEVARD which chronicles the relationship between the West Side of Chicago and Oak Park; its suburb next door; in the 1970s and in the present. Thank you Mitchell Duneier; for this book and Sidewalk too; two totally different undertakings until you consider that both try to understand the plight of man (Sidewalk) and a people (Ghetto) through the multiplicity of both their perspectives and the context that shaped them. Duneier not only writes with great precision and synergy; but he deconstructs a seemingly inscrutable magic trick of white dominance. This is not only a work of great scholarship; it debunks the Northern myth of South: bad; North: good. Turns out everything is messed up but ; in part; by design. Reading GHETTO is an awakening; a call to action; a reminder that people have struggled and thrived for hundreds of years not because they were isolated; but in spite of it.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The planet; as a country; that no one recognizes.By Safety GuyThis is a book that people should want to read; with the drive to want the latest smart phone.It's one thing to read pages and say; 'yes; I read that book'.What is critical in reading this book; is understanding what happenedthroughout the ages. What the pages are saying. And reading this way; one becomes more intuitive.It's a life-learning process; to become more informed; educated to a higher level;to grow one's intuition. That is what makes a person better; for themselves; then; for others.This book speaks loudly about what the intelligent person knows; the frailty of human nature.No matter the century; it's the human character that is the same. And that is the tragedy of humanity;that it repeatedly fails itself by the treatment of its own kind; the human kind.
