The public and its possibilities : triumphs and tragedies in the American City / John D. Fairfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fairfield, John D., 1955-

Series:

Urban life, landscape, and policy.

Urban life, landscape, and policy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City and town life--United States--History.

City and town life.

Community life--United States--History.

Community life.

Civic improvement--United States--History.

Civic improvement.

Popular culture--United States--History.

Popular culture.

Political culture--United States--History.

Political culture.

Political participation--United States--History.

Political participation.

United States--Social conditions.

United States.

United States--Intellectual life.

United States--Politics and government.

United States--Social policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In his compelling reinterpretation of American history, The Public and Its Possibilities, John Fairfield argues that our unrealized civic aspirations provide the essential counterpoint to an excessive focus on private interests. Inspired by the revolutionary generation, nineteenth-century Americans struggled to build an economy and a culture to complement their republican institutions. But over the course of the twentieth century, a corporate economy and consumer culture undercut civic values, conflating consumer and citizen. Fairfield places the city at th

Contents:

Preface: The Public and Its Possibilities

Introduction: Liberalism and the Civic Strand in the American Past

Civic Aspirations and Liberal Values

An Urban Thesis

Civic Aspirations and Market Development in a Long Age of Revolution

Democratizing the Republican Ideal of Citizenship: Virtue, Interests, and the Citizen-Proprietor in the Revolutionary Era

Creating Citizens in a Commercial Republic: Market Transformation and the Free Labor Ideal, 1812-1873

The Short, Strange Career of Laissez-Faire: Liberal Reformers and Genteel Culture in the Gilded Age

Popular Culture, Political Culture: Building a Democratic Public

The Democratic Public in City and Nation: The Jacksonian City and the Limits of Antislavery

The Democratic Public Discredited: The New York City Draft Riots and Urban Reconstruction, 1850-1872

Cultural Hierarchy and Good Government: The Democratic Public in Eclipse

The Public in Progressivism and War

The Republican Movement: The Rediscovery of the Public in the Progressive Era

The Public Goes to War but Does Not Come Back

A Democracy of Consumers

From Economic Democracy to Social Security: The Labor Movement and the Rise of the Welfare/Warfare State

Constructing a Consumer Culture: Redirecting Leisure from Civic Engagement to Insatiable Desire

Private Vision, Public Resources: Mass Suburbanization and the Decline of the City

Conclusion: The Future of the City: Civic Renewal and Environmental Politics

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613531971

9781280128097

1280128097

9781439902127

1439902127

OCLC:

613192853