Five Points by Tyler Anbinder (2001, Hardcover, Illustrated)

In Five Points, Tyler Anbinder attempts to revolutionize historian’s thinking of the “most notorious neighborhood in nineteenth-century America.” (p. 1) Instead of following in the footsteps of previous historians, Anbinder brings in not politics and law but also the social history that tells of “slums, immigrants, [and] crime.” (p. 2) For Anbinder, “the Five Points story is the quintessential immigrant saga, full of striving and—contrary to the neighborhood’s reputation—both misery and achievement.” (p. 3) Thus, the most important element in the colorful history of the Five Points neighborhood is the ability of the residents to survive the crime-ridden environment and to build prosperous lives for their families. While Anbinder acknowledges the poverty and misery of the district, he believes historians should recognize the successes and accomplishments. Their lives in America were, after all, much better than in their mother countries.

Anbinder’s narrative spans nearly the entire nineteenth century. The first major half of his book examines the neighborhood’s residents, why they came and how they lived and worked. Thus, the reader is given provided with a detailed analysis of the district’s character before the Civil War. Anbinder describes the filthy, disease ridden environment in which Five Pointers were forced to reside. He also explores the vice, crime, drunkenness, rioting, prostitution, and other forms of lawlessness that gave the Five Point slums their reputation as a district of depravity and social chaos.

The second half of Five Points examines the neighborhood post-Civil War. Anbinder demonstrates that Irish Catholic and Protestant reformers organized social welfare programs designed to improve urban conditions in the neighborhood. For Anbinder, political strife within and between ethnic communities led to corruption and gang violence; yet, he also stresses the importance of the Democratic political machine, election fraud and corruption, and the rise of Irish politicians such as William Tweed and Matthew Brennan. Ultimately, however, Anbinder explains how Five Points was transformed from a slum housing large portions of New York City’s immigrant population to a Chinatown that still exists today.

“Five Pointers’ stories are as old as America itself, and yet as contemporary as the current waves of immigrants that continue to reshape our society.” (p. 5) Throughout Five Points, Anbinder proffers fascinating accounts of the residents of New York’s notorious slum. Often lacking within these many pages, however, is interpretation. Anbinder hints at connections between the Irish-Democrat political machine and social welfare programs adopted by the Five Points House of Industry but fails to entirely analyze the issue. As America’s first settlement house, the Five Points House of Industry certainly warrants a deeper analysis. Anbinder tells of its fundraising, adoption, job training, and alcoholic treatment programs but falls short of fully synthesizing fact and interpretation. Nevertheless, he has produced a well-researched volume that is likely the most thorough on the Five Points neighborhood and how it became “the world’s most notorious slum.”