Book Reviewed: The Bowery: The Strange History of New York's Oldest Street by Stephen Paul DeVillo

Bowery: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood This book is an exploration of Manhattan's historic neighborhoods in the southern part of the district that had secret spots and colorful characters. This includes the Five Points location; It was the scene of riots, scams, saloons, brothels, and drunkenness. Bowery encompasses Chinatown on the south; Lower East Side and the East Village to the east; and Little Italy to the west. Historically, it is considered a part of the Lower East Side of New York City. In the 17th century, this area was owned by Dutch fur traders who gave way to farmers, these farms in turn gave way to taverns, saloons, circuses, tattoo parlors, flophouses, and brothels. By the 1890s, the Bowery was a center for prostitution, and bars catering to gays, lesbians, and orgies at various social levels. One investigator in late 1800s noted that six saloons and dance halls were the resorts of "degenerates" and "fairies." Even though it was ravaged by crime and poverty, it also invented tap dance, Jazz music, arts, theater, entertainment, and show-business. The poverty of this area was shared by immigrants of Irish, Jewish, German, Italian, Chinese, and African Americans population of that time. In this book, author DeVillo describes the history of Bowery with few illustration and pictures. This book is overshadowed by several books on this topic by other authors which I found more entertaining and had more historical facts. I did not find this this book engaging. However, the book contains some images of Bowery district from late 1800s that is of some interest to the readers. But many of these pictures are obtained from Library of Congress which may also be accessed directly on the Library of Congress website.