There is an interesting book review in today's NY Times Book Review on Timothy Leary, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/review/25sante.html?_r=1&8bu=&oref=slogin&emc=bu&pagewanted=all
Turns out that Dr. Leary may have had more in common with P.T. Barnum (funny how that seems to be the case with some famous psychologists) than the Dalai Lama. For anyone interested in adding to their summer reading list, this book might be a worthy addition. Full info about the book: TIMOTHY LEARY: A Biography. By Robert Greenfield. Illustrated. 689 pp. A James H. Silberman Book/Harcourt. $28. I should point out that the reviewer is a guy nmed Luc Sante who has written an interesting book or two of his own. I recommend his "Low Life", a historical review of NYC during the 19th and early 20th century -- see: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679738762/104-8286982-2910342?v=glance&n=283155 or http://tinyurl.com/r3eu7 Sometimes the good old times weren't really good at all. Along somewhat similar lines, for those that are interested, is City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 by Timothy J. Gilfoyle W. W. Norton & Company; New Ed edition (March 1994) Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393311082/qid=1151240508/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-8286982-2910342?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 or http://tinyurl.com/nk3hz A bit that I found amusing was one reason why Columbia University moved from downtown (near Trinity Church in what is today's financial district) to its current uptown location (in the then rural-like part of Manhattan) was because of so many of their (male) students being approached by the "ladies of the night" who walked the streets outside of Columbia College (though one might argue that the real problem was not the approach but that so many men followed the ladies). For a more intellectually compelling argument for reading this book, the following is a quote from the Library Journal's review on the Amazon website: |From Library Journal |Prostitution in New York City flourished throughout the 19th century, |offering high profits to landlords and fueled by immigration, low female |wages, political corruption, and the sexual mores of the age. Gilfoyle's |study, based on his 1987 Ph.D. dissertation, analyzes New York |prostitution's growth and ultimate decline, its operation, its opposition, |and (perhaps rather too minutely) its geographical distribution. [Palij's note: regarding geographical distribution, I think that people who are familiar with Manhattan will be amazed to learn that so many currently "respectible" or even historical places were once heavily involved in the prostitution business] |He points to the political system that supported red light districts and to |the overlap of commercialized sex with socially respectable entertainment. |Though occasionally repetitious, his work is solidly researched, clearly |organized, and a useful contribution to research collections. The |manuscript won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians. |- Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington |Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. >From a social science perspectve, one of the interesting themes of the book is how established wealthy New York families controlled the real estate market, charging exorbitant rents for housing which pressured single females in low-paying jobs (typically runaways from rural America, new immigrants, etc.) into prostitution which was supported by a variety of social and political mechanisms -- meanwhile, those same wealthy New York families decried the immorality of the "lower classes", probably while examining what their current returns were for their "real estate investments". The book provides a clear picture of the forces supporting and driving sex work in a historical context as well as having some relevance to contemporary issues. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
