~ Hardcover
Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917
Musicologist Dale Cockrell recreates this ephemeral underground world by mining tabloids, newspapers, court records of police busts, lurid exposes, journals, and the reports of undercover detectives working for social reform organizations, who were sent in to gather evidence against such low-life places.
Everybody's Doin' It illuminates the how, why, and where of America's popular music and its buoyant journey from the dangerous Five Points of downtown to the interracial black and tans of Harlem.
"Cockrell’s fascinating story and soundtrack of disorderly old Gotham will delight New York City historians and music buffs alike." -- Publishers Weekly