The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism

The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism PDF Author: James J. CONNOLLY
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029844
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Progressivism, James Connolly shows us, was a language and style of political action available to a wide range of individuals and groups. A diverse array of political and civic figures used it to present themselves as leaders of a communal response to the growing power of illicit interests and to the problems of urban-industrial life. In showing that the several reform visions that arose in Boston included not only the progressivism of the city's business leaders but also a series of ethnic progressivisms, Connolly offers a new approach to urban public life in the early twentieth century.

The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism

The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism PDF Author: James J. CONNOLLY
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029844
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Progressivism, James Connolly shows us, was a language and style of political action available to a wide range of individuals and groups. A diverse array of political and civic figures used it to present themselves as leaders of a communal response to the growing power of illicit interests and to the problems of urban-industrial life. In showing that the several reform visions that arose in Boston included not only the progressivism of the city's business leaders but also a series of ethnic progressivisms, Connolly offers a new approach to urban public life in the early twentieth century.

An Elusive Unity

An Elusive Unity PDF Author: James J. Connolly
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801441912
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Although many observers have assumed that pluralism prevailed in American political life from the start, inherited ideals of civic virtue and moral unity proved stubbornly persistent and influential. The tension between these conceptions of public life was especially evident in the young nation's burgeoning cities. Exploiting a wide range of sources, including novels, cartoons, memoirs, and journalistic accounts, James J. Connolly traces efforts to reconcile democracy and diversity in the industrializing cities of the United States from the antebellum period through the Progressive Era. The necessity of redesigning civic institutions and practices to suit city life triggered enduring disagreements centered on what came to be called machine politics. Featuring plebian leadership, a sharp masculinity, party discipline, and frank acknowledgment of social differences, this new political formula first arose in eastern cities during the mid-nineteenth century and became a subject of national discussion after the Civil War. During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, business leaders, workers, and women proposed alternative understandings of how urban democracy might work. Some tried to create venues for deliberation that built common ground among citizens of all classes, faiths, ethnicities, and political persuasions. But accommodating such differences proved difficult, and a vision of politics as the businesslike management of a contentious modern society took precedence. As Connolly makes clear, machine politics offered at best a quasi-democratic way to organize urban public life. Where unity proved elusive, machine politics provided a viable, if imperfect, alternative.

A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era PDF Author: Christopher McKnight Nichols
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119775701
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era presents a collection of new historiographic essays covering the years between 1877 and 1920, a period which saw the U.S. emerge from the ashes of Reconstruction to become a world power. The single, definitive resource for the latest state of knowledge relating to the history and historiography of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Features contributions by leading scholars in a wide range of relevant specialties Coverage of the period includes geographic, social, cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, ethnic, racial, gendered, religious, global, and ecological themes and approaches In today’s era, often referred to as a “second Gilded Age,” this book offers relevant historical analysis of the factors that helped create contemporary society Fills an important chronological gap in period-based American history collections

Lillian Wald

Lillian Wald PDF Author: Marjorie N. Feld
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469606623
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Founder of Henry Street Settlement on New York's Lower East Side as well as the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Lillian Wald (1867-1940) was a remarkable social welfare activist. She was also a second-generation German Jewish immigrant who developed close associations with Jewish New York even as she consistently dismissed claims that her work emerged from a fundamentally Jewish calling. Challenging the conventional understanding of the Progressive movement as having its origins in Anglo-Protestant teachings, Marjorie Feld offers a critical biography of Wald in which she examines the crucial and complex significance of Wald's ethnicity to her life's work. In addition, by studying the Jewish community's response to Wald throughout her public career from 1893 to 1933, Feld demonstrates the changing landscape of identity politics in the first half of the twentieth century. Feld argues that Wald's innovative reform work was the product of both her own family's experience with immigration and assimilation as Jews in late-nineteenth-century Rochester, New York, and her encounter with Progressive ideals at her settlement house in Manhattan. As an ethnic working on behalf of other ethnics, Wald developed a universal vision that was at odds with the ethnic particularism with which she is now identified. These tensions between universalism and particularism, assimilation and group belonging, persist to this day. Thus Feld concludes with an exploration of how, after her death, Wald's accomplishments have been remembered in popular perceptions and scholarly works. For the first time, Feld locates Wald in the ethnic landscape of her own time as well as ours.

The CQ Press Guide to Urban Politics and Policy in the United States

The CQ Press Guide to Urban Politics and Policy in the United States PDF Author: Christine Kelleher Palus
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1483350029
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
The CQ Press Guide to Urban Politics and Policy in the United States will bring the CQ Press reference guide approach to topics in urban politics and policy in the United States. If the old adage that “all politics is local” is even partially true, then cities are important centers for political activity and for the delivery of public goods and services. U.S. cities are diverse in terms of their political and economic development, demographic makeup, governance structures, and public policies. Yet there are some durable patterns across American cities, too. Despite differences in governance and/or geographic size, most cities face similar challenges in the management of public finances, the administration of public safety, and education. And all U.S. cities have a similar legal status within the federal system. This reference guide will help students understand how American cities (from old to new) have developed over time (Part I), how the various city governance structures allocate power across city officials and agencies (Part II), how civic and social forces interact with the organs of city government and organize to win control over these organs and/or their policy outputs (Part III), and what patterns of public goods and services cities produce for their residents (Part IV). The thematic and narrative structure allows students to dip into a topic in urban politics for deeper historical and comparative context than would be possible in either an A-to-Z encyclopedia entry or in an urban studies course text. FEATURES: Approximately 40 chapters organized in major thematic parts in one volume available in both print and electronic formats. Front matter includes an Introduction by the Editors along with biographical backgrounds about the Editors and the Contributing Authors. Back matter includes a compilation of relevant topical data or tabular presentation of major historical developments (population grown; size of city budgets; etc.) or historical figures (e.g., mayors), a bibliographic essay, and a detailed index. Sidebars are provided throughout, and chapters conclude with References & Further Readings and Cross References to related chapters (as links in the e-version). This Guide is a valuable reference on the topics in urban politics and policy in the United States. The thematic and narrative structure allows researchers to dip into a topic in urban politics for a deeper historical and comparative context than would be possible in either an A-to-Z encyclopedia entry or in an urban studies course text.

Bossism and Reform in a Southern City

Bossism and Reform in a Southern City PDF Author: James Duane Bolin
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813193648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
William Frederick "Billy" Klair (1875-1937) was the undisputed czar of Lexington, Kentucky, for decades. As political boss in a mid-sized, southern city, he faced problems strikingly similar to those of large cities in the North. As he watched the city grow from a sleepy market town of 16,000 residents to a bustling, active urban center of over 50,000, Klair saw changes that altered not just Lexington but the nation and the world: urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. But Klair did not merely watch these changes; like other political bosses and social reformers, he actively participated in the transformation of his city. As a political boss and a practitioner of what George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall referred to as "honest graft," Klair applied lessons of organization, innovation, manipulation, power, and control from the machine age to bring together diverse groups of Lexingtonians and Kentuckians as supporters of a powerful political machine. James Duane Bolin also examines the underside of the city, once known as the Athens of the West. He balances the postcard view of Bluegrass mansions and horse farms with the city's well-known vice district, housing problems, racial tensions, and corrupt politics. With the reality of life in Lexington as a backdrop, the career of Billy Klair provides as a valuable and engaging case study of the inner workings of a southern political machine.

Seeing with Their Hearts

Seeing with Their Hearts PDF Author: Maureen A. Flanagan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691215960
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
At the turn of the last century, as industrialists and workers made Chicago the hardworking City of Big Shoulders celebrated by Carl Sandburg, Chicago women articulated an alternative City of Homes in which the welfare of residents would be the municipal government's principal purpose. Seeing With Their Hearts traces the formation of this vision from the relief efforts following the Chicago fire of 1871 through the many political battles of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. In the process, it presses a new understanding of the roles of women in public life and writes a new history of urban America. Heeding the call of activist Louise de Koven Bowen to become third-class passengers on the train of life, thousands of women "put their shoulders to the wheel and their whole hearts into the work" of fighting for better education, worker protections, clean air and water, building safety, health care, and women's suffrage. Though several well-known activists appeared frequently in these initiatives, Maureen Flanagan offers compelling evidence that women established a broad and durable solidarity that spanned differences of race, class, and political experience. She also shows that these women--emphasizing their common identity as women seeking a city amenable to the needs of women, children, families, and homes--pursued a vision and goals distinct from the reform agenda of Progressive male activists. They fought hard and sometimes successfully in a variety of public places and sites of power, winning victories from increased political clout and prenatal care to municipal garbage collection and pasteurized milk. While telling the fascinating and in some cases previously untold stories of women activists during Chicago's formative period, this book fundamentally recasts urban social and political history.

The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era PDF Author: Ballard C. Campbell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780842027359
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The period between 1870 and 1920 was one of the most dynamic in American history. This era witnessed the invention of the automobile, the establishment of women's suffrage, and the opening of the Panama Canal. While a time of great advance-ment, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were also periods of uncertainty as Americans coped with corrupt politicians, unchecked big business, and a vast influx of immigrants. SR Books offers a new approach to this time period in its book The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This volume looks at the experiences of 13 people who contributed to the shaping of American culture and thought during this period. These concise accounts are written by leading historians and give students an intimate view of history. This is an excellent text for courses in American studies.

Co-Whites

Co-Whites PDF Author: Emeka Aniagolu
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761853421
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Co-Whites discusses race and gender politics and traces the role of women in Western and non-Western political systems. Aniagolu examines the dynamics of race and gender in the United States, starting from the colonial and antebellum periods, leading up to the American Civil War and Reconstruction, through the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, to the present day. The work explores how white American women, in their search and struggle for gender equality in the United States, related to three principal streams in America's socioeconomic and political history: white supremacy, women of color-especially African American women, and the freedom and civil rights struggle for racial equality. The United States has irreversibly become a multiracial and multicultural democracy and white supremacy has become untenable; however, Aniagolu concludes that white American women collaborated with white American men as 'Co-Whites' or co-partners in the management and maintenance of white supremacy in the United States. Well-researched and lucidly written, the work makes intellectually and historically coherent a subject matter often muttered in small circles and that takes the form of scholarly 'civil wars' inside 'Women's Studies' between white American and African American women scholars and schools of thought. The work grapples with a serious issue in light of the 2008 presidential elections in the United States, offering insightful explanations certain to evoke lively debate in university classrooms, amongst professorial colleagues, and in the general public.

The American Irish

The American Irish PDF Author: Kevin Kenny
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317889150
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
The American Irish: A History, is the first concise, general history of its subject in a generation. It provides a long-overdue synthesis of Irish-American history from the beginnings of emigration in the early eighteenth century to the present day. While most previous accounts of the subject have concentrated on the nineteenth century, and especially the period from the famine (1840s) to Irish independence (1920s), The American Irish: A History incorporates the Ulster Protestant emigration of the eighteenth century and is the first book to include extensive coverage of the twentieth century. Drawing on the most innovative scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic in the last generation, the book offers an extended analysis of the conditions in Ireland that led to mass migration and examines the Irish immigrant experience in the United States in terms of arrival and settlement, social mobility and assimilation, labor, race, gender, politics, and nationalism. It is ideal for courses on Irish history, Irish-American history, and the history of American immigration more generally.