The physiology of New York boarding-houses

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gunn, Thomas Butler.

Contributor:

Faflik, David, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lodging-houses--New York (State)--New York--19th century.

Lodging-houses.

Boardinghouses--New York (State)--New York--19th century.

Boardinghouses.

New York (N.Y.)--Social life and customs--19th century.

New York (N.Y.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Mason Brothers, 1857.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The American boardinghouse once provided basic domestic shelter and constituted a uniquely modern world view for the first true generation of U.S. city-dwellers. Thomas Butler Gunn's classic 1857 account of urban habitation, The Physiology of New York Boarding-Houses, explores the process by which boardinghouse life was translated into a lively urban vernacular. Intimate in its confessional tone, comprehensive in its detail, disarmingly penetrating despite (or perhaps because of) its self-deprecating wit, Physiology is at once an essential introduction to a "lost" world of boarding, even as it comprises an early, engaging, and sophisticated analysis of America's "urban turn" during the decades leading up to the Civil War. In his introduction, David Faflik considers what made Gunn's book a compelling read in the past and how today it can elucidate our understanding of the formation and evolution of urban American life and letters.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Physiology of New York Boarding-Houses

Explanatory Notes

Further Reading

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Mason Brothers, 1857.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-200).

ISBN:

1-281-95878-6

9786611958787

0-8135-4621-4

OCLC:

437089286