A fatal drifting apart : democratic social knowledge and Chicago reform / Laura M. Westhoff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Westhoff, Laura M.

Series:

Urban life and urban landscape series

Urban life and urban landscape

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social reformers--Illinois--Chicago--History.

Social reformers.

Social ethics--Illinois--Chicago--History.

Social ethics.

History.

Chicago (Ill.)--Social conditions.

Chicago (Ill.).

United States--Social conditions--1865-1918.

United States.

Social conditions.

Illinois--Chicago.

Physical Description:

xv, 309 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, [2007]

Summary:

The eyes of the country frequently turned to Chicago during the 1890s as the Windy City struggled with the promises and challenges of urban democracy. Americans of all classes feared the social dislocations and economic divisions of urbanization and industrialization, and the effects of political corruption and massive immigration on democratic politics. Yet many reformers were hopeful that new forms of social knowledge and urban reform could reinvigorate democracy. They saw the moment as one of great possibility. A Fatal Drifting Apart: Democratic Social Knowledge and Chicago Reform explores the efforts of diverse groups within Chicago during the Progressive Era. This backdrop of industrialization, emerging classes, and ethnic and racial pluralism frequently riven with class conflict set the stage on which Chicago reformers took up the seemingly impossible challenge of enacting democracy. Laura M. Westhoff examines historic events and well-known individuals of the period and brings them together in an unusual framework that offers a new perspective on the reorientation of knowledge, civic identity, and democratic culture at the dawn of the twentieth century, which she terms democratic social knowledge. The book raises important questions that continue to resonate: In a democracy, who has the power to define social problems and offer solutions, and whose experience and knowledge are seen as legitimate?

Contents:

"He who merits victory" : liberal republicanism and the crisis of the 1890s

"To serve as a medium of acquaintance and sympathy" : the Civic Federation and conflicting visions of democratic social knowledge

"To add the social function to democracy" : Jane Addams, Hull House, and democratic social knowledge

"Such a piece of business folly" : labor arbitration and class struggles over democratic social knowledge

"The struggle is bound to take in the Negro" : race and democratic social knowledge

"Drawn on rational and scientific lines" : the fate of democratic social knowledge

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-304) and index.

ISBN:

9780814210581

0814210589

9780814291375

0814291376

OCLC:

76937399

Online:

Publisher description