Reviews

Edwin G. Burrowscoauthor of "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898," winner of the Pulitzer PrizeOnce upon a time, the Five Points was New York's most infamous neighborhood, singled out by generations of reformers and journalists as a hive of nightmarish squalor, violence, disease, and crime. But as Tyler Anbinder shows in this compelling challenge to the conventional wisdom, the Five Points slum -- bad as it was -- was never quite so bad as outsiders wanted it to be. A first-rate history, meticulously researched and populated by an amazing cast of characters.