Herbert Asbury

Tras el éxito de ventas de esta obra en tapa dura, a raíz de la película que lleva el mismo título, ponemos a disposición de los lectores la edición económica de este estupendo ensayo. Gangs de Nueva York es una obra original y muy peculiar en su enfoque: una historia de los origenes y los primeros años del crimen organizado en una ciudad como Nueva York, y eso lo convirtio muy pronto en un libro de culto, de gran utilidad para conocer aspectos poco divulgados de la hisotria de la ciudad y repleto de datos curiosos. Esta obra inspiro a Martin Scorsese que a partir de los datos y vidas de los diferentes gangster creo el guion de una pelicula de mas de 4 horas de las que la productora recorto algo mas de una.

The Gangs of New York is a tour through a now unrecognisable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence cobbled from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research. Asbury presents the definitive work on this subject, an illumination of the gangs of old New York that ultimately gave rise to the modern Mafia and its depiction in films like The Godfather. Now a major film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Liam Neeson.

Obra original y muy peculiar en su enfoque: una historia de los orígenes y los primeros años del crimen organizado en una ciudad como Nueva York, y eso lo convirtió muy pronto en un libro de culto, de gran utilidad para conocer aspectos poco divulgados de la ciudad y repleto de datos curiosos.Esta es la obra en la que se basa la pelicula del mismo nombre que ha rodado el director estadounidense Martin Scorsese, con un reparto de lujo: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz y Daniel Day-Levis. La pelicula se ha estrenado en EEUU y ha despertado mucha polemica. Podremos verla en España a partir del 14 de Febrero 2003.

On my fathers side, according to my family belief, I am related to Cotton Mather; on my mothers side to Roger Williams. My great-great-uncle was Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the Methodist Church to be ordained in America; his elder half-brother was my great-great-grandfather, Thomas Asbury, who, disowned by his father for various sins, ran away from the family cottage in England and went to sea. Later he kidnapped Susan Jennings and married her, and then settled in Virginia and so escaped the fate of the Bishop, who doubtless went to the Methodist Heaven.My great-grandfather was the Rev. Daniel Asbury of Fairfax County, Va., an early pillar of Methodism and one of the great organizers of the Church in the South. When a young man he went to North Carolina, and in 1791 founded, in Lincoln County, the first Methodist church west of the Catawba River. Later he was a Presiding Elder and labored valiantly for the Wesleyan God. When but a boy he was captured by the Indians and kept a prisoner for several years, and is said to have converted the entire tribe to Christianity. Throughout his whole life Sunday was his great dayhe was born on Sunday, converted on Sunday, captured by the Indians on Sunday, released on Sunday, reached home on Sunday,was ordained as a minister on Sunday, and on a Sunday married Nancy Morris in Brunswick County, Va. His first child was born on Sunday and he died on Sunday.