Local Attachments: Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850-1920 (Creating the North American Landscape) - Hardcover

Von Hoffman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801847109 ISBN 13: 9780801847103

Publisher: John Hopkins University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Since the mid-19th century, the United States has been transformed from a rural society of small communities into an urban nation where most people live in cities. Surprisingly, writes Alexander von Hoffman, this transformation has not destroyed "local attachments" and created an impersonal atomized society. Instead, these attachments have flourished in the fundamental unit of urban society - the city neighbourhood. In "Local Attachments", von Hoffman explores the emergence of the modern urban neighbourhood in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by examining Boston's outer-city neighbourhood, Jamaica Plain. Like other American urban neighborhoods of the era, Jamaica Plain experienced the arrival of many ethnic groups, a house-building boom for members of every social class and the creation of commercial, industrial and recreational boundaries within its boundaries. Despite this diversity, a vital neighbourhood culture bound the residents of the neighbourhood together. Businesses, churches, schools, clubs, charitable societies and political organizations spun a web of social ties that fostered a powerful sense of allegiance to the local community. Yet, in the end, political reformers and 20th-century mores shattered the unity of the turn-of-the-century neighbourhood and contributed to a decline in the quality of urban life.

About this title

About the Author

Alexander von Hoffman is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Design and in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801847109
• ISBN 13: 9780801847103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368