Provides a history of interracial sexual relationships during the era of slavery.

Nineteenth-century NYC’s most dynamic and dangerous neighborhood comes vividly to life in this “careful, intelligent, and sympathetic history” (The New York Times Book Review). Located in today’s Chinatown, Five Points was home to poor immigrants and other marginalized communities. It witnessed more riots, scams, prostitution, and drunkenness than any other neighborhood in America. But at the same time it was a font of creative energy, crammed full of cheap theaters, dance halls, and boxing matches. It was also the home of meeting halls for the political clubs and the machine politicians who would come to dominate not just the city but an entire era in American politics. Drawing from letters, diaries, newspapers, bank records, police reports, and archaeological digs, Anbinder has written the first-ever history of Five Points, the neighborhood that was a microcosm of the American immigrant experience. The story that Anbinder tells is the classic tale of America’s immigrant past, as successive waves of new arrivals fought for survival in a land that was as exciting as it was dangerous, as riotous as it was culturally rich. A New York Times Notable Book

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts describing the neighborhood, the gangs, and the Dead Rabbits Riot *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Brick-bats, stones and clubs were flying thickly around, and from the windows in all directions, and the men ran wildly about brandishing firearms. Wounded men lay on the sidewalks and were trampled upon. Now the Rabbits would make a combined rush and force their antagonists up Bayard street to the Bowery. Then the fugitives, being reinforced, would turn on their pursuers and compel a retreat to Mulberry, Elizabeth and Baxter streets." - New York Times, July 1856 Of all the great cities in the world, few personify their country like New York City. As America's largest city and best known immigration gateway into the country, the Big Apple represents the beauty, diversity and sheer strength of the United States, a global financial center that has enticed people chasing the "American Dream" for centuries. However, for all the promise and opportunities America seemingly held out, and for all of the nostalgia and pride the country's history invokes among Americans today, the simple truth is many never climbed the ladder. Hundreds of years spent trying to eradicate poverty has resulted only in gradual improvements, firm evidence that poverty will never be erased and poor people will be left to their own means of survival. That is how slums are born and maintained, and that is the story behind Five Points and the gangs that ruled it. The neighborhood's colloquial nickname came from its famous five-pointed intersection, created by Orange Street (now Baxter Street), Cross Street (now Mosco Street), and Anthony Street (now Worth Street). In many ways, Manhattan's notorious Five Points neighborhood represents the best and worst of the American Dream. The downtrodden area, full of recently arrived immigrants hoping to get ahead, was home to some of the most famous gangs and fights in New York City's history, from the Dead Rabbits to the Bowery Boys. At the same time, however, the neighborhood and its gangs have been romanticized as an inextricable part of New York's history, perhaps most notably in the critically acclaimed movie Gangs of New York. Given its history of rapid change, it's somewhat amusing that the city's inhabitants today often complain about the city's changing and yearn for things to stay the same, and over time, the Five Points changed much the way the rest of Manhattan did. By the end of the 19th century, the value of the real estate and the increase in the population compelled the city to transform the neighborhood by razing tenements and building newer and nicer structures. In the case of the Five Points, it could not have gotten a more radical or ironic makeover, as the impoverished area gave way to scenic parks and a host of administrative governmental buildings. The Five Points: The History of New York City's Most Notorious Neighborhood chronicles the famous and controversial story. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Five Points like never before, in no time at all.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A thrilling tale of desire and Peruvian corruption swirls around a scandalous exposé that leads to murder From the Nobel Laureate comes a politically charged detective novel weaving through the underbelly of Peruvian privilege. In the 1990s, during the turbulent and deeply corrupt years of Alberto Fujimori’s presidency, two wealthy couples of Lima’s high society become embroiled in a disturbing vortex of erotic adventures and politically driven blackmail. One day Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposés. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page. Meanwhile, Enrique’s wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique’s lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru’s unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embark on their greatest exposé yet. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, the novel swirls into the kind of restless realism that has become Mario Vargas Llosa’s signature style. A twisting, unpredictable tale, The Neighborhood is at once a scathing indictment of Fujimori’s regime and a crime thriller that evokes the vulgarity of freedom in a corrupt system.

Maxine Revere, a nationally renowned investigator of cold cases, looks into the suspicious suicide of an old friend in an attempt to clear his name in the killing of Max's best friend thirteen years earlier, when they were all high school students.

Boston has always been known for its stiff character. So how did this great New England city become home to one of the largest and most notorious adult entertainment districts in the nation? In this expertly crafted history, veteran reporter Stephanie Schorow teases out the issues that created this controversial neighborhood, giving voice to the players who sought to tame or profit from the sleaze snaking its way through Boston. At turns comic and tragic, Schorow introduces us to the politicians, exotic dancers, and wise guys, and residents brought together by the adult entertainment district—a five-acre neighborhood the city engineered to contain the very porno plague it wanted to eliminate. (Meet the nun-turned-attorney who advocated for the First Amendment rights of adult bookstores, a dancer called “the thinking man's stripper,” and Boston's unofficial city censor.) For these people and thousands of others, the Combat Zone is more than a memory—it was a life-altering adventure.

Do ghosts really exist, or is "ghostly phenomena" just strange stuff that gets blamed on dead people? Giving you the real story, professional ghostbuster and skeptic Adam Selzer of Weird Chicago Tours delves into a mysterious death at a former funeral parlor, nightly ghost sightings at Hull House, and more. Proving that not all ghost hunters are kooks (some are just geeks gone wild), Selzer showcases true spooky tales worldwide, a history of hauntings, the art of ghost hunting, and cool evidence of paranormal phenomena and the supernatural. These ghost stories will make you want to investigate that cemetery down the road to see if it's haunted—or just dark and creepy.