The classic social history of corruption and vice in nineteenth-century NYC: “A cacophonous poem of democracy and greed, like the streets of New York themselves” (John Vernon, Los Angeles Times Book Review). Lucy Sante’s Low Life is a portrait of America’s greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city’s slums; the teeming streets—scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape. Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era’s opportunities for vice and entertainment—theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling and prostitution; Part Three investigates the forces of law and order which did and didn’t work to contain the illegalities; Part Four counterposes the city’s tides of revolt and idealism against the city as it actually was. Low Life is one of the most provocative books about urban life ever written—an evocation of the mythology of the quintessential modern metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York’s past but about the present and future of all cities.

Low Latitude Aeronomical Processes contains the papers presented at the symposium on Low Latitude Aeronomical Processes, held in Bangalore, India in May and June 1979. The conference focuses on the discussion and exchange of scientific studies on low latitude aeronomy, of which India is one of the main practitioners. The presentations contained in the book cover areas of study in equatorial electrojet, electric field, and electric current; low latitude middle atmosphere; and low latitude ionosphere above 100 km. Trans-ionospheric propagation in the equatorial regions and stratospheric chemistry and sun-weather relationships for low latitude regions, as well as a discussion on incoherent and coherent scatter observations at low latitude, are encompassed as well. Atmospheric physicists and researchers will find this book an interesting read.