Island of Vice - by Richard Zacks (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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 page; 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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Island of Vice

"Impeccably researched, excitingly told."
--E. L. Doctorow, award-winning author of Ragtime

"An engagingly vivid picture of the rise of Roosevelt, the birth of the reform movement, and the creation of 20th century America. Roosevelt comes alive with all of his blustery and belligerent passion, and so does New York City."
--Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs

"A fascinating narrative history of Theodore Roosevelt's doomed struggle to put a lid on crime. . . . Penetrates beneath the bluster into the psychology of this strange, restless man."
--NPR

"As thrilling as the low dives and wanton women it describes. This is the real-life story of an American icon. . . . Zacks does a superb job as both a historian and a storyteller."
--Kevin Baker, bestselling author of Paradise Alley

"Excellent . . . A fish-out-of-water comedy, in that it tells the story of what happens when one of the virtuous clubmen--a square, incorruptible, 'law-and-order Republican'--is placed in charge of the New York Police Department."
--The Wall Street Journal

"A cinematic saga about one of the reformer's early battles: trying to clean up the city that definitely never sleeps. Zacks... tells a clear-eyed immorality tale with cameos by Stephen Crane, Lincoln Steffens, exotic dancer Little Egypt, plus a cast of locals who'd have pleased Damon Runyon."
--Newsday

"Part of the pleasure of Richard Zacks' Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York is in knowing how the story ends--that the stubborn, imperious young city official trying to reform Tammany-era New York would achieve greatness throughout his larger-than-life career."
--Christian Science Monitor

"From the opening pages of his rousing new book, Island of Vice, Richard Zacks plunges readers into the filth, debauchery and corruption of 1890s New York. When an ambitious young Theodore Roosevelt strides in to clean up the mess, the story, already brimming with incredible characters and jaw-dropping details, only gets better."
--Candice Millard, bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic

"An irresistible force--young Theodore Roosevelt, the police commissioner, determined to wipe out vice--meets an immoveable object--the corrupt, pleasure-loving city of New York in the 1890s. And the result is: a whole lot of fun. What a marvelous time Richard Zacks must have had researching this story. The information is fascinating, the amazing tale moves with a headlong pace. I'm sure Island of Vice will be a best-seller, and it deserves to be."
--Edward Rutherfurd, bestselling author of New York: The Novel

"It's been said that New York City politics were invented to scare young children. True, according to Richard Zacks whose riveting account lays bare the depravity and corruption of the Gilded Age--and the failed crusade of Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to stop it. A must-read for any student of Gotham."
--Teresa Carpenter, author of New York Diaries, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing

"Zacks probes this period of Roosevelt's life with exhaustive details, drama, and intrigue. The 40 pages of bibliographic notes indicate the five years of research that went into this remarkable re-creation of fin-de-siècle New York. Writing with a prismatic, poetic slant, Zacks unveils a colorful portrait of a volcanic Roosevelt towering over the soul of the city."
--Publishers Weekly

"Set in gas-lit 1890s Manhattan, Zacks' depiction of virtue versus vice pits Theodore Roosevelt against a gallery of antagonists. . . . A fascinating story that Zacks relays with zest. His pungent vignettes of sinful establishments and the police who 'protected' them hang on the main plot of Roosevelt's campaigns to dismiss bad cops and enforce long-dormant alcohol and prostitution laws, which often resulted in proceedings showcasing Roosevelt at his most combatively indignant. His research artfully attired in active prose, Zacks writes a winner for Roosevelt and NYC buffs." --Booklist

"Zacks returns with a sharply focused look at Theodore Roosevelt's brief tenure as a New York City police commissioner. . . . The author takes us inside fin-de-siècle brothels and bars, Tammany Hall and courtrooms, contentious commissioners' meetings and cops' barracks. A nuanced, comprehensive portrait of a unique man and the surrounding period, culture and political system."
--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Richard Zacks got his book-writing start specializing in lewd and offbeat history. His An Underground Education and History Laid Bare are classics of their kind. More recently, he is the author of The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd, chosen by Time in 2002 as one of the five best nonfiction books of the year; and The Pirate Coast (2005). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Life, Harper's, Sports Illustrated, Village Voice, and other publications. He writes in a small office overlooking Union Square in New York City.