Professor Timothy Gilfoyle wins book award from the Urban History Association for best book (North American) published in 2006
KENNETH JACKSON AWARD FOR BEST BOOK (NORTH AMERICAN) PUBLISHED IN 2006 awarded
to Timothy Gilfoyle for his book, A Pickpocket's Tale: the Underworld of
Nineteenth-Century New York (W.W. Norton, 2006).
Selected from more than
thirty outstanding nominations, A Pickpocket's Tale combines evocative prose
with meticulous research to tell the riveting story of a petty criminal named
George Appo, and through his story, to convey a revealing history of the
underside of the nation's largest city. Well known in his time, Appo was lost to
history until Gilfoyle resurrected him. Gilfoyle's genius, however, lies in his
decision to build the narrative around Appo's journey. Following Appo through
his triumphs and travails allows Gilfoyle to introduce the readers to the Five
Points and Chinatown neighborhoods where the pickpocket grew up with other lost
boys, learning the code of conmen and petty thieves who relied on guile and
intelligence to craft their crimes. Gilfoyle takes us inside prisoner ships,
penitentiaries, and asylums to unmask the brutality of the nineteenth-century
penal system. In discussing, the violence that Appo encountered and survived,
including shootings and stabbings, Gilfoyle demonstrates how a rapidly growing
New York City became an increasingly more diverse, more chaotic, and less
egalitarian place.
A masterful work of urban scholarship, A Pickpocket's
Tale reminds us that good history explains the past, but great history gives the
past meaning and illuminates the human condition.
