Gary Krist: Chronicling Underworld Battles in Literature

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Gary Krist is an American writer for the New York Times, the Washington Post Book World, and Salon. Krist is a well credited author of some of the bestselling works of fiction such as the City of Scoundrels, The White Cascade, Extravagance, and of course Empire of Sin just to name a few. He graduated from Princeton University, studied literature at a German university called University of Konstanz through a study abroad program.
Empire of Sin a Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and The Battle for Modern New Orleans is the story of New Orleans battle against the underworld vice and crime. The battle is centered on Tom Anderson the vice leader of the Storyville District. Anderson fought to keep his empire of sin alive against incoming moral reformers. …show more content…

The romance era was the time of romance through works of literature and the progressive era was a push forward in reform and social activism. Throughout this novel well-known figures of history during this time period was mentioned. Charles “Buddy” Bolden was an African- American jazz musician that was one of the first to play this genre of music. The Jim Crow Laws were instated in the Crescent City due to the majority race wanting racial segregation to maintain the higher power. In this period, women were having more freedom and broke the rules. Flappers were becoming popular all over, notorious for smoking cigarettes wearing scandalous clothes and doing scandalous things.
Gary Krist's thesis for Empire of Sin was to fight against the Italian criminal underworld in order to maintain control over vice, crime, and corruption of the last thirty years of New Orleans. The shooting on Hennessy led the Vigilance Committee vowing to the New Orleans people to end the Italian quarter of New Orleans. Tom Anderson being the business model for the vice industry and vice leader was targeted by moral reformers and local law enforcement. Anderson had brothels, assignation houses, bars, and gambling establishments to …show more content…

The book gave a thorough understanding of how New Orleans was in the early twentieth century. It explained the major events that were going on such as prostitution, early Italian Mafia, alcohol, prohibition and how the city tried to escape from the sin that was inevitable to avoid. Gary Krist proved his theory with all the reliable sources he used such as primary sources from the court and newspaper articles. Krist writing style made the book easier to understand and be able to learn from it. With this being said, he mentioned events that took place and explained them for those who may not know what was going on during this

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