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

Author: Herbert Asbury Year: 1927 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction, Mystery, Crime, True crime, Historical fiction, Classic Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781560252757 9780307388988 1560252758 0307388980

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. Similar books: The Barbary Coast by Herbert Asbury Low Life by Luc Sante Five Points by Tyler Anbinder Terrible Honesty by Ann Douglas The Murder of Helen Jewett by Patricia Cline Cohen A Pickpocket's Tale by Timothy J. Gilfoyle When the Astors Owned New York by Justin Kaplan Satan's Circus by Mike Dash Ship Ablaze by Edward T. O'Donnell The Devil's Playground by James Traub The Devil's Gentleman by Harold Schechter Island of Vice by Richard Zacks The Great Bridge by David McCullough Triangle by David Von Drehle The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky Gay New York by George Chauncey Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas