Libri di Herbert Asbury Migliori da leggere e consigliati

Prostitute, borseggiatori, assassini, avvelenatori e ladri sono i protagonisti dell’epopea della criminalità newyorkese ricostruita da Asbury: un viaggio tra i bassifondi della Grande Mela prima ancora che diventasse la città dei grattacieli, tra la fine dell’Otto e l’inizio del Novecento. Un affresco pieno di episodi e personaggi memorabili che rievoca la miseria e la sconvolgente violenza di un’epoca turbolenta, nella quale criminali dai nomi fantasiosi come Dandy Johnny Dolan, Bill the Butcher, Hell-Cat Maggie l’Arpia erano costantemente in agguato nelle ombre dei vicoli di Five Points, regno per decenni delle opposte gang dei Dead Rabbits e dei Bowery Boys. Prefazione di Gabriele Romagnoli.

The Gangs of New York is a tour through a now unrecognisable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence centred around the infamous slum of Five Points, with its rival Irish and American gangs. Cobbled from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research, this is a powerful account of New York City’s tumultuos past. 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 cult films like The Godfather.

The Gangs of New York is a tour through a now unrecognisable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence centred around the infamous slum of Five Points, with its rival Irish and American gangs. Cobbled from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research, this is a powerful account of New York City’s tumultuos past. 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 cult films like The Godfather.