All Around the Town

The Gangs of New York #2

by Herbert Asbury

The author of the New York Times best-seller The Gangs of New York returns with a second volume of tales from Gotham's underworld. In this wonderfully colorful and surprising history, Herbert Asbury expands his purview beyond the Five Corners to the entire city of New York. From Lord Cornbury, a loonily corrupt, cross-dressing British governor of colonial days, to the Broadway pickpocket who built herself a mansion in Hoboken, where she set herself up as European royalty, to prohibitionist Carry Nation's first visit to a scornful city of saloons (and her memorable confrontation with the drunken John L. Sullivan), When New York Was Really Wicked brings to vivid life a memorable range of characters, grifters, murderers, and madmen. Rediscovering a fascinating array of lost corners in the history of the city, Asbury shows that today's tabloid headlines have nothing on the daily goings-on 150 years ago. From "The Sawing-Off of Manhattan Island" to "The Wickedest Man in New York" to "The Flour Riot of 1837," these twenty-three lively and accessible accounts make for top-notch, eccentric popular history as told by a master.

Genres: History, Crime, True Crime, Nonfiction, Historical, American History

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Herbert Asbury (September 1, 1889 – February 24, 1963) was an American journalist and writer best known for his books detailing crime during the 19th and early-20th centuries, such as Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld, The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld and The Gangs of New York.

Reviews

[columbialion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Asbury's collection of episodes in early NYC history is fascinating. As he did successfully in "Gangs", Asbury paints the continuum of the New York story as one of sometimes brutal, but always sharp divergence, between privilege and poverty. The often furious violence of the slum vs. the opulence of the monied and powerful few. Absolutely required reading for all native new yorkers...or those aspiring to be one!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I read this to get some context on the places in NY from the Alienist. It's a good,easy compliation of little New York oddities from the late 1800's and early 1900's

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgotten past history.

[John E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of short articles and vignettes of old New York City. This is getting down into the real lives of those usually lost in more general histories. I'm glad that someone likes to look at what we are walking in our trip through life.

[Michael Gass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Herbert Asbury was a journalist that embellished a lot. Found that out after reading this book and his book about the five corners in New york. There are better authors on these topics out there.