[RAK]∎ Read Gratis The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City Sparked the Tabloid Wars Paul Collins 9780307592200 Books

The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City Sparked the Tabloid Wars Paul Collins 9780307592200 Books

Download As PDF : The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City Sparked the Tabloid Wars Paul Collins 9780307592200 Books

The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City Sparked the Tabloid Wars Paul Collins 9780307592200 Books

I am tempted to give away some of the plot details of this true story, set in gilded age New York. But even a few spoilers would detract from the reader’s experience. Suffice it to say when pieces of an unidentified man start washing up the river in 1897, the timing conflates with the colorful – and ruthless – newspaper wars between Joseph Pulitzer’s, New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s, New York Journal. Soon, the whole city is engaged in the mystery and few are content, particularly journalists, to remain passive observers and leave the investigation up to the nascent police detective force. The Murder of the Century is a fabulous book; colorful as the newspapers, well written and exquisitely researched. Paul Collins has worked hard to produce a superior work, filled with human detail. This is a fascinating era; and one as politically engaged as our own. Highly recommended with a hard cider, in the saloon of your choice.


Tags : The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars [Paul Collins] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “No writer better articulates ourinterest in the confluence of hope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strange than Paul Collins.”—DAVE EGGERS   On Long Island,Paul Collins,The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars,Crown,0307592200,Criminals & Outlaws,Editors, Journalists, Publishers,Crimes of passion;New York (State);New York;Case studies.,Murder;New York (State);New York;Case studies.,Tabloid newspapers;New York (State);New York;History;19th century.,19th century,American Journalism,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography Criminals & Outlaws,Biography & Autobiography Editors, Journalists, Publishers,BiographyAutobiography,Case studies,Crimes of passion,History,History United States 20th Century,Infamous Crimes And Criminals,Murder,Murder - General,New York,New York (State),Tabloid newspapers,True Crime Espionage,True Crime Murder General,True Crime Murder Serial Killers,United States - 19th Century,United States - State & Local - Middle Atlantic

The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City Sparked the Tabloid Wars Paul Collins 9780307592200 Books Reviews

Paul Collins' work, "The Murder of the Century The Gilded Age Crime that Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars" is perhaps the longest title ever written for a book. As such, it might indeed be a succession of headlines and subheads for the original newspapers whose histories unfold in the book. "The Murder of the Century" is the story of a complicated crime where the "corpus dilecti" is found in dissected body parts spread around late 19th century Manhattan. It is also the story of the development of tabloid news sources of major dailies and the avaricious scramble for readers that led news agencies to develop reporter/photograph squads with orders to "make the news if you can't find it". Now, THAT has the odor of yellow journalism that didn't think twice about starting a war involving the U.S.

"The Murder of the Century" is a fascinating read for those of us who are interested in mass media, its derivations and final products not to mention its possible effects on "the masses." This book is also a colorful portrayal of that world and life as it was lived in 19th Century America.

The book also portrays the major players (and, newspaper-selected alleged participants in the crime). In that way we get to see the crime from half a dozen different points of view.

Finally, "The Murder of the Century" is a fast read, a beach book that plunges one into a tarnished tale of the gilded age and its appetites. Sometimes, too, the book teaches you how we got some of the attitudes we see around us today. Mr. Collins has introduced enough celebrities of the day for his book "The Murder of the Century" to smack of some of the traditions of tabloid news.
If you like history, true stories, and yellow journalism, then you might enjoy this. As for the crime, I never heard of the case before, so it was new and interesting, but, quite frankly, I got tired of the constant stories of feuding between the newspapers and skipped a lot of pages that containing nothing BUT. Had I known the book was about yellow journalism, I wouldn't have purchased it. On the other hand, to give credit where credit is due, the author clearly has a sense of humor, and I was sorry he didn't use it more often in the book; perhaps I could then have given him more than three stars. I will give him credit for his excellent descriptions of places in the book where certain incidents happened, as I got a good feel for what it was like living back then. Nevertheless, I was glad when the book was done; as result, it rates only 3 stars.
When I was reading this on my , my sense of pacing was thrown completely off, as a large percentage of the book is sources and references. So when the trial was over and we were wrapping up loose ends of prominent players, there was still a good 25% of the book left, and so I was waiting for... something. Only to turn the page and find that it was, in fact, over.

I'm a huge fan of Erik Larsen, and so I was looking forward to getting into this book. I love to read historical non-fiction, and if it's about an event or person I've never even heard of, all the better. Mr. Collins did an alright job of interspersing some small historical tidbits of interest, but it's not as interesting as Erik Larsen, where with the latter, almost every page you're like "Oh wow, I didn't know that!" or "That's where that expression comes from!" etc. In "Murder of the Century", the little bits of color that are added are pretty localized to the area and time, and they're not that interesting or mentioned in such a way, with enough context, to make them interesting.

In any case though, it's an interesting read. As I mentioned above, because of the large chunk of references at the end of the book, I thought there was a lot more to the story than there was. In addition, the murder, the trial.. it's just really not that suspenseful. I expected a big twist or shocking moment. There was just nothing. I feel like I learned more about NYC in this time frame by my own wandering around wikipedia while I was reading this book.

It's a good book, but only 'good.'
I am tempted to give away some of the plot details of this true story, set in gilded age New York. But even a few spoilers would detract from the reader’s experience. Suffice it to say when pieces of an unidentified man start washing up the river in 1897, the timing conflates with the colorful – and ruthless – newspaper wars between Joseph Pulitzer’s, New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s, New York Journal. Soon, the whole city is engaged in the mystery and few are content, particularly journalists, to remain passive observers and leave the investigation up to the nascent police detective force. The Murder of the Century is a fabulous book; colorful as the newspapers, well written and exquisitely researched. Paul Collins has worked hard to produce a superior work, filled with human detail. This is a fascinating era; and one as politically engaged as our own. Highly recommended with a hard cider, in the saloon of your choice.