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Herbert Asbury

The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld Paperback – Oct. 9 2002

by Herbert Asbury (Author)

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Product details

Publisher : Basic Books (Oct. 9 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 1560254084
ISBN-13 : 978-1560254089
Item weight : 340 g
Dimensions : 13.97 x 2.06 x 20.96 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #568,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #57 in History of Sociology
- #593 in Revolutionary History (Books)
- #898 in Sociology of Culture

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83 ratings

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About the Author

Herbert Asbury (1891-1963) was a prolific journalist, editor, newspaperman, and author of The Gangs of New York, The Barbary Coast, The French Quarter, Sucker's Progress, The Gangs of Chicago, and other books.

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Hawkmoon100

good tough read

Reviewed in Canada on May 11, 2019

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Good read. Tough life. Would be a good movie setting.

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Mr. Joe

The wickedest city on the continent

Reviewed in Canada on March 21, 2003

"And Hell, yawning to receive the putrid mass, is there also".
Such is the description of San Francisco's Barbary Coast cited from another publication by author Herbert Asbury.
THE BARBARY COAST, first published in 1933, is a history of that vicious and squalid section in the heart of the City by the Bay devoted to all forms of crime, vice, lewd conduct and wickedness for the period 1849 to 1917. Asbury's fascinating narrative includes the dance halls, music saloons, dives, brothels, and gambling dens that infested the area, as well as the criminal gangs, hoodlums and cutthroats that preyed on the men lured there. The book's scope also encompasses the rising population of Chinese residents that coalesced into Chinatown, as well as the yellow slavery, tong wars and virulent anti-Chinese sentiments that evolved concurrently. And, since San Francisco is one of the world's greatest natural ports, the author describes the perils to both arriving and departing sailors, who were drawn to the Barbary Coast as insects to Venus Flytraps.
The twin pillars of the Barbary Coast were robbery and prostitution. Despite the early successes of vigilantism in ridding the burgeoning metropolis of undesirables, the fact that both thrived for so long can be attributed to the toleration and blatant corruption of the city's law enforcement officials and governing politicos. Of the two, prostitution was the foundation of the area's iniquity since, as the author is careful to point out, the Barbary Coast didn't finally die until the California Legislature passed the Red-light Abatement Act of 1914. Therefore, it's no surprise that much of the volume is dedicated to the Oldest Profession: the cribs, cow-yards, parlor houses, pimps, madames, and debasing working conditions.
THE BARBARY COAST comes near to being a book in the "couldn't put down" category. However, it sorely lacks the illustrations and period photographs that enhanced the Asbury's "prequel" volume, THE GANGS OF NEW YORK. Nevertheless, once read, you'll not see the modern streets of San Francisco in the same way again.

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Scott Wejmar

An Amazing History of SF

Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2003

San Francisco is an amazing city. Each time I visit I discover something new along its narrow alleys, panoramic vistas and historical landmarks. North Beach has always been my favorite SF neighborhood. It is amazing to me that such wickedness prevailed on these streets in the not so distant past. When I picked up the Barbary Coast, I was surprised that it was an older novel (first published in the 1930's). Don't let that persuade you from reading it. Asbury's frank and colorful descriptions of the old Barbary Coast will capture your imagination from the first page. Starting with the gold rush, Asbury describes the incredible influx of people onto the peninsula within a few short years and the lawlessness it creates. The stories of the prostitutes, gamblers, thieves, gangs, saloon keepers, brawlers, and corrupt politicians are all richly told in Asbury's colorful language that keeps the reader's attention all the way through. This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of the gold rush and San Francisco's past.

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Charles E. Joubert

A Good Book About the Seamy Side of San Francisco.

Reviewed in Canada on December 27, 2002

The miners came in Forty-nine,
The whores in fifty-one;
And when they got together
They produced the native son.
This irreverend verse in the early part of THE BARBARY COAST sets the tempo of what is to follow: Joaquin Murieta, the Vigilantes, the Tong Wars in Chinatown, Shanghaiing sailors, the red-light district. I read it forty years ago originally and still recommend it, as do I the same author's THE FRENCH QUARTER.
This book is an informal history: as such it is sparse with the references, but it's a great read.
San Franciscans should be proud of it.

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Darren Mckeeman

Wow.

Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2002

I'd seen this book on the shelves at the library, but I had always passed over it because it was too non-linear for my research. Boy, was that a mistake. This is THE best book about San Francisco's Barbary Coast in existance. It came to my attention again because of 'Gangs of New York', and I went ahead and bought it this time. Read this book and find out how tame everyone from San Francisco is these days in comparison.

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Sue

Hard work

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2015

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A long tome

Chrijeff

Sin by the beautiful Bay

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2016

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There was a time when San Francisco was called "the wickedest, most corrupt and godless city on the face of the Earth—even more wicked than Marseilles or Port Said." This classic study shows you why. Following up on The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld , which Asbury had written five years earlier (still to come in his histories of city underworlds were French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld (1936) and Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (1940)), it traces the bawdier side of life in the City by the Bay from its roots when "the world rushed in" in 1849; around the early '50's a flood of ruffianly veterans of the frontier towns of Australia, joined by escaped convicts and ticket-of-leave men from New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, began to arrive, and the more enterprising spirits among them took over the flimsy frame and brick building of the old Chilean neighborhood and began opening lodging houses, dance halls, groggeries, and taverns there. After describing the character (or lack thereof) and crimes of the "Hounds" and "Sydney Ducks," whose activities led to the founding of the Committee of Vigilance in 1851, as well as the political corruption in which these groups flourished, and the "Second Cleansing" of 1856 as inspired by the shooting of James King of William, Asbury goes on to show how the Coast "settled" into its best-known and most modern incarnation, including the semi-legitimate businesses (auction houses, secondhand-clothing shops) that flourished there, the reluctance of the police to intervene in its affairs, and many of the most prominent criminal characters who called the district their home. Some of the Coast's "traps" weren't too bad, especially by modern standards, and Asbury introduces us to the best of them, the famous concert saloon known as the Bella Union, which was one of the goals of the earliest "slummers," and one of whose advertising sheets, dated 1862, ballyhooed "a constantly varied entertainment...fun and frolic...song and dance...grace and beauty...eccentricity...laughter for millions...dramatic, terpsichorean and musical talent..." Then he explores the vices of Chinatown, where bordellos and cribs staffed by Chinese slave girls (which they literally were) and opium dens abounded, even though this wasn't strictly a part of the Coast, and provides a look at the how and why of the infamous practice of shanghaiing, the various types of (mostly non-Chinese) prostitution, the effect of the Fire of 1906, and the decline of the district as San Francisco grew up and tried to forget how it had begun.

Some of what you'll find in these pages may shock you (though none of it is terribly graphic; the book was, after all, written in 1933), and judging by what I've been able to discover in most of a lifetime researching the social history of the 19th Century, San Francisco customs shouldn't be taken as being followed in the smaller towns and villages that dominated the country till well into the 20th. The chief fault of the book is that it doesn't always clarify when certain things happened or certain people and resorts were a part of the picture; if you're reading it for factual background, as I was, you'll find you have to go online and do some backup searching to get a clear idea of chronology. On the other hand, it shows as few other books do just how corrupt the city's government was for nearly 60 years, and why. It's a superior example of what it is, and a necessary read for those who wonder just how bad the biggest cities of the US were in their early years.

3 people found this helpful

Jonathan Fesmire

I wish I could thank Herbert Asbury for this detailed resource.

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018

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What an incredible look at San Francisco history!

From the earliest days of the California Gold Rush in 1848 until the final doors were forced shut in 1921, the Barbary Coast district of San Francisco was home to extreme crime and debauchery. Many of the city's most memorable historical figures profited from the Barbary Coast. Between it, Chinatown, and the Upper Tenderloin district, San Francisco has perhaps the most colorful history of any U.S. city.

This account of that infamous district, first published in 1933, is an entertaining and sometimes shocking read.

"The Barbary Coast" is one of the books I've read as research for the next book in my steampunk zombie western series, which will take place in San Francisco in late 1876 and will involve this district and many of its more dangerous inhabitants from that time. I wish I could thank Herbert Asbury for this detailed resource.

2 people found this helpful

Chaz

Walk, see, hear and smell the brothel and saloon riddled streets of 19th century 'Sin' Francisco..

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2019

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Fascinating historical book 1st published in 1933 about the sordid past of San Francisco from the 49ers Gold Rush impact to the start of the 20th century. This book proves fact is far for fascinating that fiction. With real people, establishment and street names you can literally walk back in time to the bawdy and more than naughty streets of old San Fran.

One person found this helpful

William E. Wallace

San Francisco's Earty Underworld

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013

Verified Purchase

Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast is the gold standard for books about crime and law enforcement in San Francisco from the start of the Gold Rush in 1849 through the beginning of the Twentieth Century. As I mention below, it has one flaw that would lead me to ding it for one half star were that possible, but only a historical scholar would make much of this particular drawback, so a five-star rating is justified.

I bought The Barbary Coast as one of a number of reference books for use in writing my Amos Kuttner series (the first of which, "Tamer: An Amos Kuttner Novel," is now available here at Amazon). These novels are set during the Gold Rush period in California and San Francisco is a key locale in three of the four books I am writing for the series. Asbury's book is precisely what I needed for general background on the early days of crime and law enforcement in the city by the bay.

Actually, he provides much more than general background: the books include material from a variety of historical sources, including contemporaneous newspaper clippings and other historical artifacts, and is well indexed to ease in finding specific subjects. It is broken into chapter headings by subjects -- for example, the Sydney Ducks, the Hounds of Tammany Hall -- and follows the trail of corruption and criminality up to the election of James Rolph and the defeat of Boss Abraham Ruef's Workingmen's Party, a political organization that tolerated wholesale thievery because it engaged it in itself.

The one weakness of the book is its lack of formal footnoting. Sources, where attributed, are done so in standard journalistic fashion (eg: in a section on the nickel dance emporiums that were hotbeds of crime at the turn of the century, Asbury directly quotes a lengthy passage directly from a story in the San Francisco Call, but he does not cite the date of the paper or the page or section in which the passage was found).

Nevertheless, the book is a valuable compendium of useful knowledge about the gangsters, whores and thugs who plied their trades during the 60-odd year period after Marshall's gold strike in Coloma. It is written in a chatty and sometimes florid style that gives it the pace and attractiveness of pulp magazine crime yarns.Adding to its value in a peculiar way is the fact that "The Barbary Coast," which was published in 1933, is written in the lurid journalistic style of the period, adding it a touch of dime-novel panache drier, more tradition accounts lack. Thus, Chinese immigrants are referred to as Chinamen or Celestials, African-Americans are called "Negroes," prostitutes are "harlots," brothels are "bagnios," etc.

Though the inadequate sourcing renders the book less than ideal for a series researcher, the breezy quality of the text and Asbury's propensity for humor make it perfect for a reader who is simply interested in the subject matter but unconcerned with pushing Asbury's research further.

2 people found this helpful

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