Bruce Chadwick (1)

The author leans a little too much into their portrayal of nineteenth-century New York City as a lawless zone that waves of immigrants were poring into. Much of this book is focused on descriptions of crimes that made the news, with a special emphasis on murder and prostitution. The police, who were originally political appointees, were typically not up to the task of maintaining law and order. Eventually, due to structural changes and the development of a professional police force, the tide was turned, but while this book attempts to make this point, the actual narrative keeps getting distracted by riots and more descriptions of lawlessness. Perhaps I'm simply not the right reader for this book, but I didn't care for the narrative construction of this book and I felt like the author failed to make their point.… (más)

An interesting account of George Wythe, the first Virginian to sign the Declaration of Independence, a beloved lawyer who rewrote his state's law codes and taught some of our country's greatest men.
Perhaps this is petty of me, but I give this book only three stars because of a brief mention of Lucrezia Borgia and her supposed love of using arsenic poisoning. Added to the comment that she had an illegitimate child via an incestuous affair with her father, I could not help but wonder what other information in this book was also so inaccurate.
Still, it's an interesting history of the city of Richmond, Virginia and of the medical practice of the 18th and early 19 th century.… (más)