Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New YorkA ROLLICKING NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S EMBATTLED TENURE AS POLICE COMMISSIONER OF CORRUPT, PLEASURE-LOVING NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1880s, AND HIS DOOMED MISSION TO WIPE OUT VICE In the 1890s, New York City was America’s financial, manufacturing, and entertainment capital, and also its preferred destination for sin, teeming with 40,000 prostitutes, glittering casinos, and all-night dives packed onto the island’s two dozen square miles. Police captains took hefty bribes to see nothing while reformers writhed in frustration. In Island of Vice, bestselling author Richard Zacks paints a vivid picture of the lewd underbelly of 1890s New York, and of Theodore Roosevelt, the cocksure crusading police commissioner who resolved to clean up the bustling metropolis, where the silk top hats of Wall Street bobbed past teenage prostitutes trawling Broadway. Writing with great wit and zest, Zacks explores how Roosevelt went head-to-head with corrupt Tammany Hall, took midnight rambles with muckraker Jacob Riis, banned barroom drinking on Sundays, and tried to convince 2 million New Yorkers to enjoy wholesome family fun. In doing so, Teddy made a ruthless enemy of police captain “Big Bill” Devery, who grew up in the Irish slums and never tired of fighting “tin soldier” reformers. Roosevelt saw his mission as a battle of good versus evil; Devery saw prudery standing in the way of fun and profit. When righteous Roosevelt’s vice crackdown started to succeed all too well, many of his own supporters began to turn on him. Cynical newspapermen mocked his quixotic quest, his own political party abandoned him, and Roosevelt discovered that New York loves its sin more than its salvation. Zacks’s meticulous research and wonderful sense of narrative verve bring this disparate cast of both pious and bawdy New Yorkers to life. With cameos by Stephen Crane, J. P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer, plus a horde of very angry cops, Island of Vice is an unforgettable portrait of turn-of-the-century New York in all its seedy glory, and a brilliant portrayal of the energetic, confident, and zealous Roosevelt, one of America’s most colorful public figures. |
From inside the book
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... Street and sixteen-year-old prostitutes trawling Broadway in floor-length dresses, of platitudes uptown and bawdy lyrics on the Bowery, of Metropolitan Opera divas performing Wagner and of harem-pantsed hoochie-coochie dancers grinding ...
... Street and sixteen-year-old prostitutes trawling Broadway in floor-length dresses, of platitudes uptown and bawdy lyrics on the Bowery, of Metropolitan Opera divas performing Wagner and of harem-pantsed hoochie-coochie dancers grinding ...
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... streets. New York wagon drivers, paid for speed, cursed in many languages. Vehicles could ride in any direction on any street. The five-mile-per-hour speed limit was routinely ignored; the only faint attempt to aid pedestrians trying to ...
... streets. New York wagon drivers, paid for speed, cursed in many languages. Vehicles could ride in any direction on any street. The five-mile-per-hour speed limit was routinely ignored; the only faint attempt to aid pedestrians trying to ...
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... Street, under the shadow of Diana. Swells in frock coats played faro and roulette for thousands, with no money exchanged, only elegant inlaid-ivory chips gliding across tables. A four-star chef waited in the basement for dinner orders ...
... Street, under the shadow of Diana. Swells in frock coats played faro and roulette for thousands, with no money exchanged, only elegant inlaid-ivory chips gliding across tables. A four-star chef waited in the basement for dinner orders ...
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... Street to 42nd Street. Dance halls such as the Star & Garter and Haymarket, with orchestras playing waltzes, charged twenty-five cents admission for men; women entered free. One song, with a cloying melody, ran: Lobsters! rarebits ...
... Street to 42nd Street. Dance halls such as the Star & Garter and Haymarket, with orchestras playing waltzes, charged twenty-five cents admission for men; women entered free. One song, with a cloying melody, ran: Lobsters! rarebits ...
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... Street to Franklin Square in the older part of the city. The disguises seemed to be working, as a pretty young woman irritatedly moved her skirts away from Dr. Parkhurst. Gardner had decided to start with the waterfront dives of Cherry ...
... Street to Franklin Square in the older part of the city. The disguises seemed to be working, as a pretty young woman irritatedly moved her skirts away from Dr. Parkhurst. Gardner had decided to start with the waterfront dives of Cherry ...
Contents
POLICE ON THE GRILL | |
ENTER CRUSADER ROOSEVELT | |
SLAYING THE DRAGONS | |
MIDNIGHT RAMBLES | |
LONG HOT THIRSTY SUMMER | |
THE ELECTION | |
CRACK UP CRACK DOWN | |
ARMED AND DANGEROUS | |
I AM RIGHT | |
DEVERY ON TRIAL | |
SURPRISES | |
DUEL | |
Other editions - View all
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York Richard Zacks Limited preview - 2012 |
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-loving New ... Richard Zacks No preview available - 2012 |
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York Richard Zacks No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
300 Mulberry Ahlwardt arrest asked Avenue Avery Andrews beer Big Bill brothels Byrnes called Chapman charges Chief Conlin city’s club Commissioner Andrews Commissioner Parker cops crime criminal crowd Democrats detective Devery’s drinking Eakins Edith election Elliott enforcement excise Frank Moss Gardner Goff headquarters Henry Cabot Lodge Ibid Illustration credit Inspector Jacob Riis judge July June later Lauterbach lawyer letter Lexow Lincoln Steffens liquor Little Egypt Lodge Mayor Strong McKinley months morning newspapers night Oyster Bay Parkhurst patrolman plainclothes Platt Police Board police commissioner police department police officers policemen political precinct prostitutes Raines Law reform reporter Republican Riis saloons Senator sergeant Street Sunday Tammany Hall Tenderloin Theodore Roosevelt Tierney told Town Topics TR to Bamie TR to HCL TR’s Tracy trial Trib vote walked wanted William women wrote York City York Evening World York police York World