Island of Vice
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Island of Vice by Richard Zacks
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 pa≥ 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.
Richard Zacks is the author of An Underground Education and History Laid Bare.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780767926195 |
| ISBN 10 | 0767926196 |
| Title | Island of Vice |
| Author | Richard Zacks |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 2012-09-04 |
| Number of pages | 464 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |