Sante earned himself a big fan base with this popular history of New York's underbelly circa 1840-1920, reissued here with a new Afterword by the author. He roams from the Lower East Side to Hell's Kitchen, from the Bowery to the waterfront. It's a picture not only of particular neighborhoods, but of the life that was led within them: street culture, the saloons, the cops, the prostitutes, the money men, the poor. Edith Wharton, it ain't, and it's become a must-read as a companion to other histories concentrating on politics, wealth and power in the same period. Illustrated with plenty of black-and-white photos.  (NYC34, $17.00)