Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City

By Daniel Burnstein

To many Progressive Era reformers, the extent of street cleanliness was an important gauge for determining whether a city was providing the conditions necessary for impoverished immigrants to attain a state of "decency"--a level of individual well-being and morality that would help ensure a healthy and orderly city. Daniel Eli Burnstein's study examines prominent street sanitation issues in Progressive Era New York City--ranging from garbage strikes to "juvenile cleaning leagues"--to explore how middle-class reformers amassed a cross-class and cross-ethnic base of support for social reform measures to a degree greater than in practically any other period of prosperity in U.S. history. The struggle for enhanced civic sanitation serves as a window for viewing Progressive Era social reformers' attitudes, particularly their emphasis on mutual obligations between the haves and have-nots, and their recognition of the role of negative social and physical conditions in influencing individual behaviors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252077806
• ISBN13: 9780252077807
• Release Date: July 2010
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.9"