Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York

by Eric C. Schneider

Overview

They called themselves "Vampires," "Dragons," and "Egyptian Kings." They were divided by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood boundaries, but united by common styles, slang, and codes of honor. They fought—and sometimes killed—to protect and expand their territories. In postwar New York, youth gangs were a colorful and controversial part of the urban landscape, made famous by West Side Story and infamous by the media. This is the first historical study to explore fully the culture of these gangs. Eric Schneider takes us into a world of switchblades and slums, zoot suits and bebop music to explain why youth gangs emerged, how they evolved, and why young men found membership and the violence it involved so attractive.


Schneider begins by describing how postwar urban renewal, slum clearances, and ethnic migration pitted African-American, Puerto Rican, and Euro-American youths against each other in battles to dominate changing neighborhoods. But he argues that young men ultimately joined gangs less because of ethnicity than because membership and gang violence offered rare opportunities for adolescents alienated from school, work, or the family to win prestige, power, adulation from girls, and a masculine identity. In the course of the book, Schneider paints a rich and detailed portrait of everyday life in gangs, drawing on personal interviews with former members to re-create for us their language, music, clothing, and social mores. We learn what it meant to be a "down bopper" or a "jive stud," to "fish" with a beautiful "deb" to the sounds of the Jesters, and to wear gang sweaters, wildly colored zoot suits, or the "Ivy League look." He outlines the unwritten rules of gang behavior, the paths members followed to adulthood, and the effects of gang intervention programs, while also providing detailed analyses of such notorious gang-related crimes as the murders committed by the "Capeman," Salvador Agron.


Schneider focuses on the years from 1940 to 1975, but takes us up to the present in his conclusion, showing how youth gangs are no longer social organizations but economic units tied to the underground economy. Written with a profound understanding of adolescent culture and the street life of New York, this is a powerful work of history and a compelling story for a general audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691074542
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/23/2001
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eric C. Schneider is Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and Adjunct Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of In the Web of Class: Delinquents and Reformers in Boston, 1810s-1930s.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface: Crossing 96th Street
Introduction: The Capeman and the Vampires	3
Ch. 1	Remaking New York	27
Ch. 2	Discovering Gangs: The Role of Race in the 1940s	51
Ch. 3	Defending Place: Ethnicity and Territory	78
Ch. 4	Becoming Men: The Use of the Streets in Defining Masculinity	106
Ch. 5	Making a Gang Culture: Form, Style, and Ritual in the Gang World	137
Ch. 6	Leaving the Gang: Pathways into Adulthood	164
Ch. 7	Intervening in Gangs: The Problems and Possibilities of Social Work	188
Ch. 8	Drugs, Politics, and Gangs, 1960-1975	217
Conclusion: Comparing Gangs: Contemporary Gangs in Historical Perspective	246
Notes	263
Index	319

What People are Saying About This

Ruth Horowitz

A very strong analysis of gangs in postwar New York City. Schneider's historical approach to understanding gang activities is innovative.... This is a well-written and interesting book that should appeal to a wide audience.

Carl Nightingale

This is the kind of book we need to regain our sanity about young people and violence.

Michael B. Katz

In this marvelous and fascinating book,Eric Schneider tells the real West Side Story. With a wide array of sources-including interviews with former gang members-he locates the post-war history of New York City's gangs in the multiple transformations of the city's social ecology,economy,ethnic and race relations,institutions,and culture.

Margaret Marsh

An original and imaginative work both of historical significance and narrative power. It is thoroughly grounded in the scholarly literature. . . . At the same time,it is so well written and contains so many remarkable stories that it will be accessible to general readers as well.

Katz

In this marvelous and fascinating book, Eric Schneider tells the real West Side Story. With a wide array of sources-including interviews with former gang members-he locates the post-war history of New York City's gangs in the multiple transformations of the city's social ecology, economy, ethnic and race relations, institutions, and culture.
— Michael B. Katz, University of Pennsylvania

Ellen Dwyer

Drawing on an extraordinary range of primary and secondary materials,Eric Schneider has produced an incisive and compelling history of youth gangs in New York City.

David Wolcott

Schneider succeeds in offering an insightful analysis of youth gangs, linking the methods of social history with those of sociology,anthropology,and criminology. This book is well worth the attention of a wide readership.

From the Publisher

"A very strong analysis of gangs in postwar New York City. Schneider's historical approach to understanding gang activities is innovative.... This is a well-written and interesting book that should appeal to a wide audience."—Ruth Horowitz, New York University

"In this marvelous and fascinating book, Eric Schneider tells the real West Side Story. With a wide array of sources-including interviews with former gang members-he locates the post-war history of New York City's gangs in the multiple transformations of the city's social ecology, economy, ethnic and race relations, institutions, and culture."—Michael B. Katz, University of Pennsylvania

"Drawing on an extraordinary range of primary and secondary materials, Eric Schneider has produced an incisive and compelling history of youth gangs in New York City."—Ellen Dwyer, Indiana University

"An original and imaginative work both of historical significance and narrative power. It is thoroughly grounded in the scholarly literature. . . . At the same time, it is so well written and contains so many remarkable stories that it will be accessible to general readers as well."—Margaret Marsh, Rutgers University

"This is the kind of book we need to regain our sanity about young people and violence."—Carl Nightingale, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"Schneider succeeds in offering an insightful analysis of youth gangs, linking the methods of social history with those of sociology, anthropology, and criminology. This book is well worth the attention of a wide readership."—David Wolcott

Ruth Horowitz, New York University

A very strong analysis of gangs in postwar New York City. Schneideris historical approach to understanding gang activities is innovative.... This is a well-written and interesting book that should appeal to a wide audience.

Editorial Reviews

"A comprehensive and tantalizing picture of the street gang culture that was part of the New York City mythology from the '40s to the '70s. [Schneider] knows his way around the streets and does a particularly good job of making sense of the drug plague that ended the original postwar gang culture. . . . Schneider's understanding (if not affection) for the gang style informs the work throughout. Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings is a sharp book about a peculiar moment in the New York life—one that seems strangely antiquated as we approach the new millennium."—-Martin Jackson, Village Voice

From the Publisher

A comprehensive and tantalizing picture of the street gang culture that was part of the New York City mythology from the '40s to the '70s. [Schneider] knows his way around the streets and does a particularly good job of making sense of the drug plague that ended the original postwar gang culture. . . . Schneider's understanding (if not affection) for the gang style informs the work throughout. Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings is a sharp book about a peculiar moment in the New York life—one that seems strangely antiquated as we approach the new millennium.

Village Voice - Martin Jackson

A comprehensive and tantalizing picture of the street gang culture that was part of the New York City mythology from the '40s to the '70s. [Schneider] knows his way around the streets and does a particularly good job of making sense of the drug plague that ended the original postwar gang culture. . . . Schneider's understanding (if not affection) for the gang style informs the work throughout. Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings is a sharp book about a peculiar moment in the New York life—one that seems strangely antiquated as we approach the new millennium.
— Martin Jackson

Village Voice

Superb. This is a marvelous piece of work: beautifully written, nicely organized, thoroughly researched, consistently insightful.

New York History

[Schneider's] study of Manhattan youth gangs in the years after World War II blends academic disciplines with the author's recollections of the events he traces.Fascinating history.

Booklist

Historian Schneider, author of In the Web of Class: Delinquents and Reformers in Boston, 1810s-1930s (New York Univ., 1992), jumps forward in time and down the coast to examine the phenomenon of New York City youth gangs after World War II. Drawing on countless sources, meticulously noted, he offers reasons for the emergence of gangs, shows us their particular culture, assesses intervention programs, and traces their decline in the 1960s and resurgence in the 1970s. Throughout, he augments his scholarly research with excerpts from interviews with former gang members (including authors Claude Brown and Piri Thomas and 1950s and 1960s teen singing idol Dion DiMucci) and street workers--social workers assigned to work with gangmembers. Schneider's chapter comparing gangs of yesterday and today seems a bit cursory, but modern gangs are not his focus here, and his observations are still interesting. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Jim Burns, Ottumwa, P.L., IA

Library Journal

Schneider (history, U. of Pennsylvania) fully explores the culture of postwar gangs in New York city, focusing on the years 1940 to 1975, but also links the study to the present. Drawing on interviews with former gang members and former street club workers for the New York City Youth Board, as well as close investigation of archival collections of settlement houses, mayoral papers, and newspapers, he thoroughly explores the details of gang members' motivations, their culture, and the social context of the period. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

"[Schneider's] study of Manhattan youth gangs in the years after World War II blends academic disciplines with the author's recollections of the events he traces.Fascinating history."

Booklist