Description
Book SynopsisOn a Sunday morning in early 1892, Reverend Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst ascended to his pulpit at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York and delivered one of the most explosive sermons in the city''s history. Municipal life, he charged, was morally corrupt. Vice was rampant. And the city''s police force and its Tammany Hall politicians werea lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and libidinous lot. Denounced by city and police officials as a self-righteous blatherskite, Parkhurst resolved to prove his case. The bespectacled minister descended his pulpit and in disguise visited gin joints and brothels, taking notes and gathering evidence. Two years later, his findings forced the New York State Senate to investigate the New York Police Department. The Lexow Committee heard testimony from nearly 700 witnesses, who revealed in shocking--and headline-dominating--detail just how deeply the NYPD was involved in, and benefited from, the vice economy. Parkhurst''s campaign had kick-started the
Trade ReviewNew York Exposed takes us back to the rollicking, dangerous, fascinating New York of the 1890s, yet still contains many parallels to and lessons for our own time. Careful and rigorous history, it nonetheless reads like a gripping police procedural, filled with some of the most colorful and outrageous characters of our past. * Kevin Baker, author of The Big Crowd *
Czitrom offers a walk on the seamy side of Gotham in the 1890s, peopled with brutal cops, corrupt politicians, conniving businessmen, evangelical zealots, exploited immigrants, earnest reformers, and sensationalist media. Using a yellowing 6000 page transcript of an 1894 legislative hearing as his Rosetta Stone, he vividly illuminates the era's nexus of politics and criminality. A tour de force of investigation and interpretation. * Mike Wallace, author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History *
[Czitrom's book] resonates today in echoes of police brutality and corruption, income inequality, restricted immigration, vote suppression, links between evangelicals and politics and, as Professor Czitrom writes, 'the nation's profound fear and distrust of New York City.' * Sam Roberts, The New York Times Bookshelf *
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Parkhurst's Challenge Chapter 2: The Buttons Chapter 3: Democratic City, Republican Nation Chapter 4: Anarchy vs. Corruption Chapter 5: A Rocky Start Chapter 6: Managing Vice, Extorting Business Chapter 7: "Reform Never Suffers From Frankness" Chapter 8: "A Landslide, A Tidal Wave, A Cyclone" Chapter 9: Endgames Epilogue: The Lexow Effect
