"[A] fascinating visual history." --Bryan Cheyette, Times Literary Supplement "Powerful and compelling." --Aaron Shkuda, Gotham Center for New York City History "The twentieth century saw an explosion of photographic images, and arguably the Lower East Side was its ground zero. Sara Blair spins a virtuoso tale of the effect of this explosion on the creation and perception of place, from its social-cultural roots in anxieties of nineteenth-century immigration and urbanization to its furthest reaches in imagery of nuclear disaster and climate change." Margaret Olin, author of Touching Photographs "Sara Blair deftly blends visual and aural evidence in this multilayered, multisensory journey through the Lower East Side and across several centuries. Blair draws our attention to how creative writers, journalists, photographers, poets, and so many others focused on what they think they saw and heard in that very special, indeed iconic slum." --Hasia R. Diner, author of Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America.