What Gangs of New York Misses

City Journal ^ | January 14, 2003 | William J. Stern

[Freee-dame]

bump

[nopardons]

I haven't a clue, as to there being or not a thread, here, on it, nor a review. SORRY ! Watch the last bit tomorrow night.

I missed the first one ( my husband taped it for me and I haven't watched it yet ), as I was taping " BENEDICT ARNOLD ", which I saw after the program that I was watching. Why they put on multiple interesting shows, all on the same noght, at the same time, after a dearth of things to see, is quite beyond me. :-(

Anyway, tonight's episode began with Mrs. O'Leary ( they cleared her name )and the Chicago fire. Then, it went through the Fields, Pullman, Louis Sullivan, Chicago architecture ( nice shots of Carson Pirie Scott, Marshall Field's , etc., etc. ), the anarcists and the Hay Market riots. It was spectacularly well done and I am a VERY harsh judge. You would have loved it. I am SO very sorry that you missed it. They'll probably repeat it, sometime ; keep on the lookout for it.

[Bonaparte]

I posted this tour of five points in a previous thread. It's not bad.

[wardaddy]

Thanks....for the spelling cue.

[wardaddy]

Thanks..nice link. I now have a pretty good picture of the place. I remember folks talking about it when I lived there on occasion. Basically the area north of Park St and Park Row to the lower end of Mulberry.

[Wallace T.]

Thank you for the correction. As you point out, there were few Polish immigrants anywhere in America in the 1860s. German immigrants and German Americans, of course, were far more numerous. I'm not aware that any of them living in the North, whether Protestant, Catholic, or freethinker, had much sympathy for the Confederacy. However, not all German Texans or German Southerners were Unionists. For example, relatives of Chester Nimitz, German-American naval chief of operations in the Pacific during World War II, fought for the Confederacy.

That the movie claimed German and Polish immigrants fought with the Irish in the New York draft riots is just another example of Director Scorcese's leftist bias.

[steve-b]

Some of the Irish in New York City were sympathetic to the Confederacy.... None of this was depicted.

WTF? The movie included repeated clear depictions of the Irish mob disdain for the Union (e.g. the vegetable bombardment of the Uncle Tom's Cabin stage play).

[Wallace T.]

The vegetable bombardment of the Uncle Tom's Cabon show was a mixed message. It was the nativist leader played by Daniel Day-Lewis who led the vegetable bombardment. The placards saying, "New York Should Secede," were held by people not identified as either Irish Catholic or English Protestant. As I mentioned previously, "Bill the Butcher" is shown as anti-Lincoln and pro-slavery. In actuality, the former Know Nothings, largely working class men of English Protestant background, migrated to the Republican Party after the American and Whig parties collapsed. A real life Bill the Butcher would have been pro-Union and pro-Lincoln.