The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld

I concluded I would have to read Gangs of New York after hearing that it had stuck with Martin Scorsese for forty years until he was able to make the movie of the same name. With that much staying power it did not disappoint. The endless gangs and characters become a blur, and the amount of crime staggers the imagination. I often thought the Cagney era gangster names and lingo were fantasies of Hollywood, but they were nothing compared to the reality. From the Plug Uglies to the Whyos to the Baxter Street Dudes the gangs constantly morphed with each new wave of immigration. Little Augie, Goo Goo Knox and the Turtle were just a few in this cast of millions. The story of any one of them could carry a movie or a book devoted to them alone. show more A compelling read, but be warned the level of violence that was the reality makes the movie of this world look mild. show less

I love to read about the squalid splendor of old New York, of the Five Points, the Bowery, of its sexology and night life. Alas and alack, those topics left their cards but didn't stay in this account of gangland during a century ending about 1925. Concentrations here include street fighting, assassins, and turf wars, topics which are tangential at best to my reading interests. Further descent came from a chapter mostly devoted to the tools and techniques one might need to enter a bank vault and two longish chapters narrating the 1863 draft riots, an event which the author admits has almost no nexus with the gangs, save that many of the participants were members of gangs. The author occasionally deploys a tongue-in-cheek whimsy to good show more effect, but overall his style is competent but plodding. show less

A raucous history of the early 19th century underbelly of New York City, replete with accounts of brutal gang warfare and Boss Tweed-era Tammany Hall political machination. Dime-novel storytelling, not actual history. A mostly riveting, edge-of-your-seat account of lowlife Americana: lots of whisky, fisticuffs, brick-throwing, and bullets from the corrupt NYPD.

Really needs an overall narrative or sociological argument/insight to tie everything together. As it is, a series of repetitive anecdotes with very few having the sort of interesting detail to make them stand out.

When reading a book written some time ago, it's important to remember that standards and tastes may have been different back then. Such is the case here. It's entirely possible (in this case, likely) that this book was considered eminently readable when it was published in 1927, but today's readers might find it somewhat more difficult.

Asbury presents us with a dizzying array of names of people (real names, pseudonyms, and nicknames) and places (modern and historical), barely pausing for breath, let alone meaningful distinction among them (I lost count of the number of gangsters described as "huge"). A map would have been nice, and a cast of characters even better.

Anecdotes are piled one on top of another, with little or no explanation show more as to why any of them are important or how any of them are connected. And each one is more sensationalistic than the last, making me wonder where Asbury got his information from. A bibliography is appended at the end of the book, but it's impossible to tell which stories he got from which sources (and, indeed, which came from "personal interviews" with criminals and police officers). So, as hard a time as I had just wading through the mass of details, I almost had an even harder time believing them. show less

Tough going at times, a bit dry occasionally. However, it has some truly fascinating stories in it about the incredible rise of New York into a civilized city. It's amazing how brutal life was at the turn of the century with violence raging nearly nonstop in some areas.

An enlightening look at the early history of New York City. The book bogs down in the categorizing of the gangs in the later years but still an eye-opening look at another time in the not so far away.