Shares personal accounts of what it was like to live under slavery.

    Dividing the city into ten neighborhoods and devoting a chapter and about a dozen voices to each, Kisseloff offers a brief introduction, then lets the eyewitnesses speak for themselves. We hear a survivor's account of the harrowing Triangle Shirtwaist fire as well as tales of the sweatshops, the settlement houses, and the immigrants from around the world who poured into the Lower East Side at the turn of the century. There are vignettes of John Reed, Louise Bryant, Eugene O'Neill, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We read of the bloody beginnings of the seamen's union and, down the street from the docks, visit with Thomas Wolfe and Edgar Lee Masters in the Hotel Chelsea. In Harlem, the Savoy and the Cotton Club were in their heyday, as were Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, and Adam Clayton Powell.Kisseloff offers a brief historical introduction to each of the ten neighborhoods and provides rare photographs of the people and places. From the pushcarts of the Lower East Side to the farms on Manhattan's northern expanse, from the Schirmers and the Steinways on the West Side to the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and the rest of the social register across the park, these eyewitnesses to another age engage us in a unique conversation between an all-but-bygone time and our own.

    The drug literature is filled with the stereotyped opinions of non-addicted, middle-class pundits who have had little direct contact with addicts.a These stories are reality.a Narcotic addicts of the inner cities are both tough and gentle, deceptive when necessary and yet often generous--above all, shrewd judges of character.a While judging them, the clinician is also being judged.OCoVincent P. Dole, M.D., The Rockefeller Institute. What was it like to be a narcotic addict during the Anslinger era?a No book will probably ever appear that gives a better picture than this one. . . . a singularly readable and informative work on a subject ordinarily buried in clich(r)s and stereotypes.OCoDonald W. Goodwin, Journal of the American Medical Association . . . an important contribution to the growing body of literature that attempts to more clearly define the nature of drug addiction. . . . [This book] will appeal to a diverse audience.a Academicians, politicians, and the general reader will find this approach to drug addiction extremely beneficial, insightful, and instructive. . . . Without qualification anyone wishing to acquire a better understanding of drug addicts and addiction will benefit from reading this book.OCoJohn C. McWilliams, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography This study has much to say to a general audience, as well as those involved in drug control.OCoPublishers Weekly The authors' comments are perceptive and the interviews make interesting reading.OCoJohn Duffy, Journal of American History This book adds a vital and often compelling human dimension to the story of drug use and law enforcement.a The material will be of great value to other specialists, such as those interested in the history of organized crime and of outsiders in general.OCoH. Wayne Morgan, Journal of Southern History This book represents a significant and valuable addition to the contemporary substance abuse literature. . . .a this book presents findings from a novel and remarkably imaginative research approach in a cogent and exceptionally informative manner.OCoWilliam M. Harvey, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs This is a good and important book filled with new information containing provocative elements usually brought forth through the touching details of personal experience. . . .a There isn't a recollection which isn't of intrinsic value and many point to issues hardly ever broached in more conventional studies.OCoAlan Block, Journal of Social History

    The first-person narratives in this book provide a glimpse into the personal lives of fourteen Vietnamese-Americans who were devastated by war and the refugee experience but who were able to create new lives in a new cultural environment.