Author |
: Richard Zacks |
Publisher |
: Anchor |
Total Pages |
: 465 |
Release |
: 2012-09-04 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780767926195 |
ISBN-13 |
: 0767926196 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (95 Downloads) |
Book Synopsis Island of Vice by : Richard Zacks
Download or read book Island of Vice written by Richard Zacks and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1890s, young cocksure Theodore Roosevelt, years before the White House, was appointed police commissioner of corrupt, pleasure-loving New York, then teeming with 40,000 prostitutes, illegal casinos and all-night dance halls. The Harvard-educated Roosevelt, with a reformer’s zeal, tried to wipe out the city’s vice and corruption. He went head-to-head with Tammany Hall, took midnight rambles looking for derelict cops, banned barroom drinking on Sundays and tried to convince 2 million New Yorkers to enjoy wholesome family fun. The city rebelled big time; cartoonists lampooned him on the front page; his own political party abandoned him but Roosevelt never backed down. Island of Vice delivers a rollicking narrative history of Roosevelt’s embattled tenure, pitting the seedy against the saintly, and the city against its would-be savior.