Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Noto

Although I am an avid NYC history fan, I must admit that I knew next to nothing about the Five Points prior to the release of the movie 'Gangs of New York'. That movie sparked an intrest in me for that area, that has yet to cease...This book takes you into that exact setting, and separates the truths from the myths. The cronological timeline of maps is one of the things I found to be quite interesting as well. I also thought it was quite amazing that the author dedicated entire chapters to some of the more imfamous sites such as The Old Brewery and Paradise Park. Sometimes I wish more of these things were preserved and still viewable today; but I guess the Five Points was an area the city simply wanted to rid itself of...And they did a good job. The five-pointed intersection has been reduced to two 'points', and the site contains no plaques or historical landmark signs whatsoever (Unless you want to count the plaques at nearby Foley Square). Hundreds of people casually stroll through the area every week, without a clue about the historical significance of the ground they walk on...However; if they were to go back in time 150 years, I'm quite sure that wouldn't be the case. The corner of Baxter and Worth will always be a special place for me...One of the few ghostly remains of a bygone era of poverty and corruption in the city, and a silent reminder to anyone who cares, of just how far the city has progressed and evolved since then.This book is definately worth your time.

I am also a native New Yorker like the first reviewer. And I am also a history buff. This book is not tedious, and does not read like a text book. It's a page turner, it's addictive... and packed with every detail about this era in New York. You will come away with knowledge that such difficult times did exist, and be greatful that you did not have to endure them.

I had heard about the Five Points neighborhood of New York City a number of years ago, but had little familiarity with it other than that it was a slum area. The name originated where the intersection of five streets took place. This location eastward from Baxter Street, across Mulberry, Mott, Pell, and The Bowery. Roughly the area of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Author Anbinder provides us with a lengthy (441 pages) account of the history of the neighborhood mainly during the 19th century in which immigration into the United States led to the conditions connected with living in tenements. Overcrowding led to disease due to poor sanitation practices. People living in tenements took in additional boarders to help pay for the rent required by owners of the buildings. Parents often used their children to raise money on the streets during the day to be used by the parents to support their alcohol habit, and if the required amount of money was not raised the child faced a beating when he arrived home. A part I especially enjoyed was the story of Jacob Riis and his eventual success in winning the love of his life and his publication of his book "How the Other Half Lives" which brought about awareness of the plight of people living in such squalid conditions. Irving Berlin and Jimmy Durante began musical careers in this area of Manhattan, while others such as Johnny Torrio rose to infamy as gangsters. I did find the part about the politics of the Five Points area to be tedious, but that is not the fault of the book, but rather my lack of interest. Immigrants coming to this country from Ireland or any other country found the living hard, but hard as it may be to believe, an improvement over living conditions in Europe where many people died from the potato famine. Yes, the book is a rather long read, but one that gives a good description of living conditions that immigrants had to put up with when arriving into this country.

If you have read "Low-Life" by Luc Sante, "Gangs of New York" by Herbert Asbury, or "New York by Gaslight" by George Foster, and enjoyed them even slightly, this book will not disappoint you. I thought the organization of the book into different aspects of life in the Five Points, instead of chronologically, was fine. It didn't confuse and seemed a logical way to organize a socially-focused history book. The author has a gift for writing some very detailed accounts and brings to life all the vibrancy and yes, squalor, held in the Five Points.This book is guaranteed to please if you are lover of NYC history.

I thought I knew everything about lower Manhattan, but this book gave me a whole new perspective on the city. Chock full of well-documented accounts as any real history book should be, I found myself recounting the wild stories from its pages to my coworkers. They were equally amazed (and in some cases, appalled), at what went on here in the 19th century. This is a must-read book on New York. Its meticulous details enable us to virtually see, hear and smell the Five Points neighborhood. Unlike the novels set in the same neighborhood and cited by other reviewers, I found the true stories in Five Points far more fascinating than the fiction in the novels. And knowing it was written by an historian freed me from having continually to ask myself, "Did that really happen or is the novelist making it up?" These true stories are better (and crazier) than any fiction.