Description
Book SynopsisExplains why youth gangs emerged, how they evolved, and why young men found membership and the violence it involved so attractive. This book describes how postwar urban renewal, slum clearances, and ethnic migration pitted African-American, Puerto Rican, and Euro-American youths against each other in battles to dominate changing neighborhoods.
Trade Review"A comprehensive and tantalizing picture of the street gang culture that was part of the New York City mythology from the '40s to the '70s. [Schneider] knows his way around the streets and does a particularly good job of making sense of the drug plague that ended the original postwar gang culture... Schneider's understanding (if not affection) for the gang style informs the work throughout. Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings is a sharp book about a peculiar moment in the New York life--one that seems strangely antiquated as we approach the new millennium."--Martin Jackson, Village Voice "[Schneider's] study of Manhattan youth gangs in the years after World War II blends academic disciplines with the author's recollections of the events he traces.Fascinating history."--Booklist "Superb. This is a marvelous piece of work: beautifully written, nicely organized, thoroughly researched, consistently insightful."--New York History "Drawing on countless sources meticulously noted, [Schneider] offers reasons for the emergence of gangs, shows us their particular culture, assesses intervention programs, and traces their decline in the 1960s and resurgence in the 1970s. Throughout, he augments his scholarly research with excerpts from interviews with former gang members."--Library Journal
Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPreface: Crossing 96th StreetIntroduction: The Capeman and the Vampires3Ch. 1Remaking New York27Ch. 2Discovering Gangs: The Role of Race in the 1940s51Ch. 3Defending Place: Ethnicity and Territory78Ch. 4Becoming Men: The Use of the Streets in Defining Masculinity106Ch. 5Making a Gang Culture: Form, Style, and Ritual in the Gang World137Ch. 6Leaving the Gang: Pathways into Adulthood164Ch. 7Intervening in Gangs: The Problems and Possibilities of Social Work188Ch. 8Drugs, Politics, and Gangs, 1960-1975217Conclusion: Comparing Gangs: Contemporary Gangs in Historical Perspective246Notes263Index319
