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In "No One Helped" Marcia M. Gallo examines one of America's most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese's life, including her lesbian relationship, also was obscured in media accounts of the crime. Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now widely known that there were far fewer actual witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. "No One Helped" traces the Genovese story's development and resilience while challenging the myth it created."No One Helped" places the conscious creation and promotion of the Genovese story within a changing urban environment. Gallo reviews New York's shifting racial and economic demographics and explores post-World War II examinations of conscience regarding the horrors of Nazism. These were important factors in the uncritical acceptance of the story by most media, political leaders, and the public despite repeated protests from Genovese's Kew Gardens neighbors at their inaccurate portrayal. The crime led to advances in criminal justice and psychology, such as the development of the 911 emergency system and numerous studies of bystander behaviors. Gallo emphasizes that the response to the crime also led to increased community organizing as well as feminist campaigns against sexual violence. Even though the particulars of the sad story of her death were distorted, Kitty Genovese left an enduring legacy of positive changes to the urban environment.… (más)
This is an interesting read, though not as compelling as I'd expected.
Gallo takes Kitty Genovese's murder and, rather than putting it under a microscope as with a typical true crime book, instead takes a much broader look. This story does not focus on Genovese, but more uses her as a central point in which various threads connect. For the most part, this approach works well. I would have liked more information on Kitty Genovese, so I could know her as a person. The details here are scant, which I find particularly odd since one of Gallo's complaints throughout this book is that Genovese was overlooked, with all the focus being on the 37 silent witnesses. Here Genovese is not as much overlooked as she is overshadowed.
The writing is good, straightforward, and easy to follow. The content and, perhaps, lack of writing is where I stumbled. First, much of this story is told through various quotes taken from numerous sources. Gallo's voice is often lost or altogether absent within other people's words. The result feels more like a compilation of facts, rather than a cohesive book.
I also feel like Gallo occasionally lost her way, providing far too much content on unrelated issues. For instance, we learn more than I'll ever need (or want) to know about Abe Rosenthal, who at the time worked for the New York Times newspaper. While his stories certainly were a heavy influence on the type of coverage Genovese's murder received, at times I felt I was reading a biography of the man's life. We're given excessive detail on matters in his past that could have been handled with a few paragraphs. This often myopic view of Rosenthal also has the misfortune of portraying him as the central figure, a man able to twist stories to his liking, while ignoring the complicity of all those around him.
For me, this book's strength is in the attention it brings to the power and bias of media. This has not changed since Genovese's murder. If anything, the problem has grown worse. Stories the media chooses to cover, how those stories are portrayed, and what the media chooses to ignore all shape our view of the world. The media is dominated by a select few. They decide what is newsworthy. They take their own biases into each story, and their coverage is, intentionally or not, a reflection of those biases. The majority of people only have one or two main sources for their news, and so what they learn is based upon what someone else wants them to know.
This book encompasses a vast amount of sociological information surrounding the Genovese's murder, and for me the appeal came in those surrounding details. If your interest is mainly the story of Kitty Genovese's murder, this book probably won't hold the same appeal for you.
*I was provided with a free ebook copy by the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review.* ( )
I received a free kindle copy of "No One Helped" Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy by Marcia M. Gallo, published by Cornell University Press from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
I gave this comprehensive historical account of the true crime Kitty Genovese story only three stars. I was able to read only forty percent of the book. It is documentary dry writing & reminded me of a doctoral dissertation. It is well researched & covers a lot of the social mores of the time but is often repetitive & difficult to read. It did correct many of the 'myths' about the event.
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To Spouse A, with love
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Since 1964 the story of Kitty Genovese has shaped our expectations of community. (Prologue: A New York Story)
As the acclaimed essayist and children's novelist E. B. White wrote in 1949, "New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation; and better than most dense communities it succeeds in insulating the individual (if he wants it, and almost everybody wants or needs it) against all enormous and violent and wonderful events that are taking place every minute."
Citas
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
It was in part because such involvement has been an integral aspect of the city's life that the myth of urban apathy caught New Yorker's attention in the first place.
The vulnerability and isolation of contemporary life seemed to be personified by the tale of the young woman who was murdered in public as her neighbors watched and did nothing, regardless of whether or not the story was true. (Epilogue)
In "No One Helped" Marcia M. Gallo examines one of America's most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese's life, including her lesbian relationship, also was obscured in media accounts of the crime. Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now widely known that there were far fewer actual witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. "No One Helped" traces the Genovese story's development and resilience while challenging the myth it created."No One Helped" places the conscious creation and promotion of the Genovese story within a changing urban environment. Gallo reviews New York's shifting racial and economic demographics and explores post-World War II examinations of conscience regarding the horrors of Nazism. These were important factors in the uncritical acceptance of the story by most media, political leaders, and the public despite repeated protests from Genovese's Kew Gardens neighbors at their inaccurate portrayal. The crime led to advances in criminal justice and psychology, such as the development of the 911 emergency system and numerous studies of bystander behaviors. Gallo emphasizes that the response to the crime also led to increased community organizing as well as feminist campaigns against sexual violence. Even though the particulars of the sad story of her death were distorted, Kitty Genovese left an enduring legacy of positive changes to the urban environment.
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Gallo takes Kitty Genovese's murder and, rather than putting it under a microscope as with a typical true crime book, instead takes a much broader look. This story does not focus on Genovese, but more uses her as a central point in which various threads connect. For the most part, this approach works well. I would have liked more information on Kitty Genovese, so I could know her as a person. The details here are scant, which I find particularly odd since one of Gallo's complaints throughout this book is that Genovese was overlooked, with all the focus being on the 37 silent witnesses. Here Genovese is not as much overlooked as she is overshadowed.
The writing is good, straightforward, and easy to follow. The content and, perhaps, lack of writing is where I stumbled. First, much of this story is told through various quotes taken from numerous sources. Gallo's voice is often lost or altogether absent within other people's words. The result feels more like a compilation of facts, rather than a cohesive book.
I also feel like Gallo occasionally lost her way, providing far too much content on unrelated issues. For instance, we learn more than I'll ever need (or want) to know about Abe Rosenthal, who at the time worked for the New York Times newspaper. While his stories certainly were a heavy influence on the type of coverage Genovese's murder received, at times I felt I was reading a biography of the man's life. We're given excessive detail on matters in his past that could have been handled with a few paragraphs. This often myopic view of Rosenthal also has the misfortune of portraying him as the central figure, a man able to twist stories to his liking, while ignoring the complicity of all those around him.
For me, this book's strength is in the attention it brings to the power and bias of media. This has not changed since Genovese's murder. If anything, the problem has grown worse. Stories the media chooses to cover, how those stories are portrayed, and what the media chooses to ignore all shape our view of the world. The media is dominated by a select few. They decide what is newsworthy. They take their own biases into each story, and their coverage is, intentionally or not, a reflection of those biases. The majority of people only have one or two main sources for their news, and so what they learn is based upon what someone else wants them to know.
This book encompasses a vast amount of sociological information surrounding the Genovese's murder, and for me the appeal came in those surrounding details. If your interest is mainly the story of Kitty Genovese's murder, this book probably won't hold the same appeal for you.
*I was provided with a free ebook copy by the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review.* (