DOWN 42nd STREET: Sex, Money, Culture, and Politics at the Crossroads of the World - Hardcover

Eliot, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446525715 ISBN 13: 9780446525718

Publisher: Warner Books, 2001

Synopsis

A social history of New York's 42nd Street explores the various ways in which money, politics, sex and culture have shaped the famed boulevard and offers profiles of the famous and infamous characters who have played key roles in its history.

About this title

Review:

In Down 42nd Street, Marc Eliot offers a fascinating and pugnacious history of what may be the most famous street in the United States--or at least the most famously decadent one. "By 1980, [New York's] fabled Manhattan crossroads had become ground zero for the manufacture, exhibition, and distribution of pornography, drug dealing, pedophilia, prostitution, and violent street crime," he writes. Eliot describes 42nd Street's development over time, and he's not afraid to go after a few sacred cows. Here's what he says about the "greatest generation" right after the Second World War: "GIs returning to the U.S. via New York City's harbors and ports were point men in the postwar sex and drug revolution." Today, of course, 42nd Street is a very different place, thanks to a conscious cleanup effort that has brought in Disney and other corporations. Eliot views this trend with a distaste that other may not feel: by the end of the 20th century, he notes with irritation, "42nd Street had become a horizontal Statue of Liberty, a place native New Yorkers avoided like Yellow Fever." All in all, Down 42nd Street is an excellent piece of opinionated urban history told with verve. --John Miller

About the Author:

Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of several biographies, including To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen, and Death of a Rebel: A Biography of Phil Ochs. He is also the author of Rockonomics: The Money Behind the Music and The Whole Truth. A native New Yorker, he divides his time between Los Angeles and New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0446525715
• ISBN 13: 9780446525718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336