Description
Book SynopsisMarcia M. Gallo provides a sensitive and multifaceted exploration of one of America's most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese.
Trade ReviewGallo [is] successful in her quest to restore Genovese's 'personhood.' In a chapter evocatively titled 'Hidden in Plain Sight,' Gallo does a wonderful job placing Genovese within the context of her times as a vibrant, successful, homosexual woman. Gallo’s interviews with Genovese’s lover, Mary Ann Zielonko, and some of Genovese’s friends add poignant and touching details to a life cut tragically short.
-- Mariah Adin * H-Net Reviews *
After reading Gallo's solidly researched book, readers can no longer simply accept the standard narrative about Kitty Genovese's murder and the claims of urban apathy.... She asks us to think more broadly about the ways in which historical narratives build up around important events and sometimes cloud our view of the past.... With this book, Gallo has at least brought the real Kitty Genovese back to life.
* Italian American Review *
Gallo's insightful and important book about the Genovese murder is both a provocative history of the ways apathy continues to challenge our popular memory of social activism and an engaging history of the postwar years that highlights the intersection of a range of social issues and political problems. It deserves a wide audience.
-- Randy D. McBee * Journal of American History *
Several books and numerous articles have marked the 50th anniversary of the infamous murder of Kitty Genovese on the night of March 13, 1964 in the borough of Queens in New York City. Marcia M. Gallo offers a valuable addition to this literature in a well-written, intelligent, comprehensive, and provocative new account of the often-told story. I believe it will be of interest to a broad range of readers, including social psychologists, other social scientists, and to lay and professional readers interested in any of the many questions raised by the case for policy making, journalism, social planning, and more.
-- Robert Levine * PsycCRITIQUES *
Table of ContentsPrologue: A New York Story1. Urban Villages in the Big City2. Hidden in Plain Sight3. Thirty-Eight Witnesses4. The Metropolitan Brand of Apathy5. The City Responds6. Surviving New City Streets7. Challenging the Story of Urban ApathyEpilogue: Kitty, Fifty Years LaterNotes
Selected Bibliography
Index
