A NOVEL OF WAYWARD YOUTH IN BROOKLYN
AVON 300
8TH PRINTING, JANUARY 1951 (300,000)
NEW YORK, USA
"This Book Is Emphatically a Reading 'Must' for Young People..."
EDWIN J. LUCAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRIME (NEW YORK)
This book is emphatically a reading "must" for young people as well as for the sociologist interested in the phenomena of gang warfare and neighborhood tensions. The saga of a conflict gang, told so powerfully in THE AMBOY DUKES, is really twice told: once, within the covers of this book: and again, in every city and town of the U.S.A. Rarely has a writer captured so faithfully and recorded so excitingly the poignant drama that is being daily unfolded for hundreds of thousands of our young people in the teeming pathways we call "streets."
Within the compass of every city street are found eloquent evidence of all society's strengths and weaknesses - from the towering air-conditioned edifices of industry to the filthy dwelling places provided for man to lay his weary body at day's end; from youth's craving for understanding, sympathy and affection, to the community's indifference to those needs. The street bears the tokens of all our ambitions, hopes and capacity to love and be loved. But there are also the scars of our fears, hates, envy, thirst for revenge, and the deep, tortured feelings of guilt which arise our of long forgotten as well as remembered episodes.
When and how can we bring these forces under control? It will, or should be, clear to the readers of THE AMBOY DUKES that they have it within their power to strike a telling blow against the continuance of the conditions - economic, social and psychological - which breed and foster crime.
EDWIN J. LUCAS,
Executive Director,
Society for the Prevention of Crime
