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- Saturday Dad Reads Week of July 26
Saturday Dad Reads Week of July 26
Gangs, Riots and why I just might riot over the Steelers' jerseys
Welcome to this week’s edition! Here’s what we’ve got lined up:
📕 This week’s Book Summary and Review: Paradise Alley
🧑🦰 Author Bio: Kevin Baker
💣️ Dad’s Knowledge Bomb: The 1863 New York City Draft Riots
📣 This week’s Dad Rant: Killing a Classic
Summary
Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker is historical fiction set in the hardscrabble Five Points neighborhood of New York City during the 1863 Civil War Draft Riots. The story follows three Irish immigrant women, Ruth, Deirdre, and Maddy (along with a host of other major and minor characters), each grappling with deep past personal trauma, the nations state of political unrest two years into the Civil War, and the daily challenges of survival in a volatile and deeply divided city. As the violent riots unfold, fueled by resentment toward the draft and rising racial tensions, the women’s lives intertwine, revealing the power of human connection and resilience in the face of chaos.
📕 Review
The film Gangs of New York is easily in my top five favorite movies. In fact, when I was in college, it was one of those films that amongst my friend group, was constantly on someone’s TV. We’d great each other with lines like: “Who is this under my knife?” and “What’s this priest? The pope’s new army?” I bring this up at the start of this week’s review because Kevin Baker’s Paradise Alley expands upon the Five Points neighborhood brought to life on screen and the New York City Draft Riots of July 1863 depicted in the film’s closing scenes.
Paradise Alley is a period piece that is rich and exacting in its retelling of the events of the draft riots and also a rich narrative told from multiple, unconventional perspectives for the time period. Baker seizes upon the racial and class tension of the time, choosing all but one of his narrators to be a people of the hardscrabble immigrant working class. Ruth, Dierdre, and Maddy are female Irish immigrants (Maddy is also a prostitute). Tom, Johnny, and Finn MacCool are all poor, male Irish immigrants. Billy Dove is African American and has a mixed-race family with Ruth. Only Herbert is a man of means, although we could consider him morally bankrupt. Along with his characters, Baker crafts a setting that causes us to sweat in the July heat of New York’s Five Points, feel the pain of those suffering during the Irish Potato Famine, and hear the crack of bullets at Fredericksburg.
The main plot of the novel is simple. Ruth must escape New York with her family because her former partner, Johnny Dolan has returned to the city and is looking to exact revenge upon Ruth and her family.
Although the plot is simple, Baker does an amazing job at revealing each character’s backstory in intense detail. We come to know each character intimately and know exactly how and why each’s context exists the way it does on the first day of the draft riots. For example, Baker creates a strong sense of foreboding when, in the first few pages, Ruth casts a wary glance up and down the block from her stoop, fearing that she might see Johnny Dolan. We immediately question her behavior and in due time, Baker takes us to the beginning of Johnny and Ruth’s relationship so that we know exactly why Ruth has such fear.
Further, Baker is unafraid to dive into subjects that were highly taboo for Paradise Alley’s time period such as the mixed-race family headed by Billy Dove and Ruth. In their example, Baker highlights the power of human connection. He also underscores the sheer power of mob group-think, violence, and hypocrisy through his treatment of the draft riot mob as it goes about destroying the very property and well-being of those who sympathize with its plight.
While this was a great period piece, Paradise Alley might just be a little too rich in its detail. There were points where the backstories became bogged down causing the plot to lose momentum. However, I do have to say that one of my favorite scenes from the book, might actually be one that I believed to be extraneous. Tom O’Kane’s time with the Black Joke Fire Company and the antics and rivalries that existed between New York’s fire associations in the mid-1800s were described in vivid detail, but I think the story could’ve moved forward without it.
If you enjoy reading character backstories this is for you, but be prepared to invest some time as it is a 600+ page tome. I listened to the majority of this one on Audible and I think I would have struggled to finish it in hardcopy alone.
Rating: ☕️☕️☕️
Kevin Baker is an American novelist, historian, journalist, and political commentator. He began his writing career in Massachusetts at 13 as a stringer for the Gloucester Daily Times, covering high‑school sports and civic affairs. Baker has built a diverse body of work spanning contemporary and historical fiction, memoir, nonfiction history, and graphic novels.
His most celebrated work is the City of Fire trilogy—Dreamland (1999), Paradise Alley (2002), and Strivers Row (2006) each of which covers pivotal periods in New York City history. Paradise Alley, the trilogy’s middle volume, received both the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction and the American Book Award in 2003. In addition to his novels, Baker served as chief historical researcher for Harold Evans’s The American Century (1999), penned the monthly “In the News” column for American Heritage magazine (1998–2007), and has contributed pieces to The New York Times, The New Republic, Harper’s, Politico, and other major outlets. A Guggenheim Fellow for nonfiction (2017), he currently resides in New York City with his wife, Ellen Abrams, and remains a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine.
💣️Knowledge Bomb: The 1863 New York City Draft Riots
The New York City Draft Riots, which erupted from July 13 to 16, 1863, were rooted in anger over the federal Enrollment Act of March 1863, which instituted a draft compelling male citizens 20–45 (and some immigrants seeking citizenship) to join the Union Army, but allowed wealthier men to avoid service by paying a $300 commutation fee or hiring a substitute. This was widely perceived as a “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.” Working-class, predominantly Irish and German immigrants already strained by economic hardship, job scarcity, and increasing racial tension fueled by fears of competition from freed Black laborers—viewed the law as profoundly unfair. Tensions escalated after the first draft lottery on July 11 in Lower Manhattan, triggering violent protests that quickly devolved into racial and class-driven attacks .
Over four days, mobs, largely Irish immigrants, vandalized draft offices, torched buildings, and brutally assaulted Black New Yorkers, including lynchings, beatings, and the burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum (the burning of this institution is covered in Paradise Alley as it is Billy Dove’s place of employment). Key targets also included Republican newspapers and symbols of federal authority. City police, overwhelmed and weakened by the absence of many officers serving in the war, proved ineffective in halting the chaos. Order was ultimately restored when Union troops, many fresh from Gettysburg, arrived on July 16, deploying force and martial tactics to suppress the riots .
Though official death counts documented around 120 fatalities (with estimates suggesting up to 1,200), about 2,000 were injured and hundreds of African American families were terrorized into fleeing the city. Property damage exceeded $1–1.5 million (1863 USD), with dozens of buildings destroyed. These riots, the largest urban civil disturbance in U.S. history, exposed deep fractures in Northern society, and prompted a re-evaluation of draft policy, led to increased military presence in Northern cities, and left a lasting scar on the New York City’s social and political landscape.
📣 Dad Rant: Killing a Classic
This is a niche rant this week applicable to those who share the same sports fandom as I do, but by all means if you’d like to hear a middle-aged man yell at a cloud, continue onward.
I’ve been a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan. As a kid I used to watch Kevin Greene and Gregg Lloyd manhandle finely-tuned athletic machines every Sunday. I did my undergraduate and graduate work at Saint Vincent College, the training camp home of the Steelers. My formative college years were bookended by Steeler Super Bowl wins. For my entire life, I’ve heard about “The Steeler Way” and always believed they were a classy organization. However, recently, it feels like the Steelers are one bad sneeze away from turning in to a clown show. Mired in mediocrity with a series of poor draft choices, the Steelers just aren’t what they used to be. The latest gaffe just adds more fuel to the fire.
What are these new alternate uniforms (see above)? Who in their right mind signed off on this? When I look at them, I want to respond with the line from Billy Madison: “I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.” These are hideous. An eyesore. Aren’t team colors supposed at least match? And there’s definitely a need for one more vertical box on the front - let’s go with looking like a full crosswalk, especially if we’re going to be a doormat of a team. Makes sense. Ugly and stupid. Unnecessary and abysmal.
Now, some may argue that they’re honoring the original 1933 team with this design and that the patch honors the city the team calls home. Plus, they’re only going to wear them once. It doesn’t matter. As my kids would say: “They’re doing too much.”
From my perspective, you just don’t kill a classic. You want to wow me with an alternate jersey? Keep it simple, clean. Black helmet, black jersey, yellow pants with big, white, block numbers. That’s a Pittsburgh Steeler jersey. Maybe, just maybe you throw in a yellow helmet.
Look at the picture below. You just don’t kill a classic.
Saturday Dad’s Rating System
I’m not a published author. Therefore, I’m never going to shit all over something that someone poured themselves into. That being said, each book will be rated on a scale of 3-5 coffees. Here’s what that means:
☕️ ☕️ ☕️ - You’re going to want to get comfortable and fill that cup up 3 times. This one’s solid!
☕️ ☕️ ☕️ ☕️ - You’re going to want to give yourself a few hours of alone time. Fill that bad boy up 4 times and buckle up.
☕️ ☕️ ☕️ ☕️ ☕️ - Send the kids to grandma’s house and call off work. You’re not going to be able to put this one down. Make a whole pot and settle in for the long haul!