1195: 2/4 Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York, by Richard Zacks

Published: Feb. 21, 2021, 2:58 a.m.

Image:  Bandit roost (59 Mulberry Street in New York City). This famous photo was taken in 1888 by Jacob Riis (May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914), a Danish-American social reformer, muckraking journalist, and social documentary photographer     Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York,  by Richard Zacks (https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Zacks/e/B000AQ1NQO/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1)      Writing with great wit and zest, Zacks explores how Roosevelt went head to head with corrupt Tammany Hall, took midnight rambles with the muckraker Jacob Riis, banned barroom drinking on Sundays, and tried to convince 2 million New Yorkers to enjoy wholesome family fun. In doing so, Teddy made a ruthless enemy of the police captain “Big Bill” Devery, who grew up in the Irish slums and never tired of fighting “tin soldier” reformers. Roosevelt saw his mission as a battle of good versus evil; Devery saw prudery standing in the way of fun and profit.      When righteous Roosevelt’s vice crackdown started to succeed all too well, many of his own supporters began to turn on him. Cynical newspapermen mocked his quixotic quest, his own political party abandoned him, and Roosevelt discovered that New York loves its sin more than its salvation.      Zacks’s meticulous research and wonderful sense of narrative verve bring this disparate cast of both pious and bawdy New Yorkers to life. With cameos by Stephen Crane, J. P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer, plus a horde of very angry cops, Island of Vice is an unforgettable portrait of turn-of-the-century New York in all its seedy glory, and a brilliant portrayal of the energetic, confident, and zealous Roosevelt, one of America’s most colorful public figures.   https://www.amazon.com/Island-Vice-Theodore-Roosevelts-Sin-Loving-ebook/dp/B005O1BXR4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1613862148&sr=1-1