The Economist - USA (2019-10-05)

The EconomistOctober 5th 2019 Books & arts 77

1

“I

cursedevery minuteI gave to it,”

CharlesBoothcomplainedofhismon-

umentalsurveyoflifeandlabourinLon-

don.It iseasytoseewhy:from 1886 to1903,

whilerunninga leatherdealershipanda

steamshipline, Boothpursuedacrazily

ambitious private scheme to chart the

socioeconomicconditionofeverystreetin

whatwasthenthebiggestcityintheworld.

To find out how many Londoners were

poor—andwhy—heandhissquadofinves-

tigators accompanied policemenon pa-

trols,and conductedinterviewsinpubs

and sweatshops. Their observations of

housingandhabits,plusthedatatheyre-

ceived from school-board visitors, were

transmutedintocolour-codedmaps.Like

illuminatedmanuscripts,theyaremesme-

risingintheirdetailanddiligence.

Thecolourschemedescendsfromred

andyellowforwealthyresidentstobluefor

“chronic want” and black for “vicious,

semi-criminal”.Thehandsomevolumein

whichthemapshavenowbeenreproduced

includes contemporaneous pictures—

faces smiling out from the squalor, or

scowling—plusextractsfromtheinvesti-

gators’notes.AsSarahWise,authorofone

of the new book’s contextualising essays,

puts it, these notes are “a compendium of

anxieties” held by the well-off about the

working classes, censorious judgment

mixing with compassion in a characteristi-

cally Victorian way. Prostitution figured

prominently, as did booze; sozzled women

were a particular worry. Italian thieves

were said to be less violent than their Eng-

lish counterparts. Irish and Jewish immi-

grants were widely reviled.

In outline, the picture of London that

emergesisfamiliar.Then,asnow,theeast

waspoorerthanthewest—a patternset

longagobythedirectionoftheThamesand

theprevailingwinds—evenifmuchofthe

heavyindustryofBooth’stimeisgone,and

the once-humming docks are quieter.

Then,as now,wealth and povertywere

more entwined thanin many metropo-

lises,theneatgridsofredandyellowonthe

mapsdisrupted by thickets of blueand

slugsofblack.Sometimesstreetsarecross-

hatched,oroutlinedassiduously inone

colourand filledinanother, toindicate

theirjumbledcomplexion.

SomeoftheslumsBoothdocumented

have since become exorbitantly trendy,

thoughgentrificationwasa featureofhis

day,too,thepoorcirculatingtothecity’s

marginstomakewayforothers.Forallthe

moralising, he concluded that vice ac-

countedfora smallshareofthe31%ofLon-

donerslivinginpoverty.Mostweredonein

bymisfortune(illness,accident,bereave-

ment)orbybadlypaidanderraticwork.

Theanecdotesinthebookareascapti-

vatingasthemaps.Thecat’s-meatsellerin

Holloway does a roaring trade because

“nearlyeverypoorfamilyisa customerfor

itscateventhoughitcanhardlyaffordto

feed itself.” Urchins save for their funerals;

64 tramps wait for their dinner outside a

Kensington church. In Deptford there are

“shoeless children running about and

frowsy women gaping at doors”. Rose, the

keeper of a Hackney sweet-shop, is thought

respectable but for “going on a spree” once

a year, on which she “drinks a drop too

much and takes up with chance men who

fleece her.” These vivid, hard London lives

are all long gone—replaced perpetually by

new struggles and stories. 7

The people of the abyss

Always with us

Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps. By

Mary Morgan and the London School of

Economics.Thames & Hudson; 288 pages;

$75 and £49.95

Doing the Lambeth walk

A

fter listening to an early perfor-

mance of “Porgy and Bess”, George

Gershwin exclaimed that the music was so

beautiful he could hardly believe he had

written it. Generations of listeners have

swooned, too. “Summertime”, the opera’s

best-known aria, is a sultry blend of blues,

folk and jazz that is said to have been re-

corded around 25,000 times.

Born in Brooklyn in 1898, Gershwin was

an innovator who used rhythm, harmony

and melody to irresistible effect. He be-

lieved that jazz was the “spontaneous ex-

pression” of modern American life and be-

came a household name in 1924 with

“Rhapsody in Blue”. A virtuoso pianist, he

performed the premiere of the jazz-in-

spired work, which he saw as a “musical

kaleidoscope of America—of our vast melt-

ing pot, of our unduplicated national pep,

of our blues, our metropolitan madness”.

Richard Crawford of the University of

Michigan has written extensively about

American music and is an enthusiastic

Gershwin fan. In his new biography of the

composer, Mr Crawford explains that

“Rhapsody in Blue” opens not with “a mel-

ody but a surprise: a reedy smear borrowed

from the comic realm of jazz novelty.”

The author offers many such evocative

descriptions in his scholarly account of

Gershwin’s tragically short life. The works

are covered in exhaustive detail, with in-

depth analysis, plots and character sum-

maries (the book is also peppered with no-

tations and terminology that might con-

fuse non-specialist readers). Some

important cultural history, however, is

missing. There is little discussion, for ex-

ample, of the racial debates surrounding

“Porgy and Bess”, which is set in a fictional

black neighbourhood in South Carolina.

Lives of the composers

Rise up singing

Summertime: George Gershwin’s Life in

Music. By Richard Crawford. W.W. Norton;

594 pages; $39.95 and £28