Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's doomed quest to clean up sin-loving New York by Richard Zacks

 A well-researched look at NYC in the late1800s as reformers attempted to quell vice while police tended to look the other way. The author uses extensive written material to chronicle bordellos, drinking establishments and gambling dens to show the state of sin. He profiles Rev. Parkhurst on his campaign to clean up the city, along with Rosevelt's time as police commissioner when he attempted to enforce blue laws and reform civil service while alienating many around him. The exhaustive details gets a bit old, but you get a sense of how wide open the city was and the personalities of the many police, bureaucrats and regular people as they navigated the times. It had B&W pictures of the main characters but would have benefitted greatly from a period grid map of city streets to help you keep track of which ward and the streets as they were discussed.