The temptation to make a case study into something more by
surrounding it with a lot of oversized theory is not easily
avoided. Katznelson, a Univ. of Chicago political scientist, falls
into the trap in this assessment of the politics of Washington
Heights - Inwood, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan.
Katznelson's main point is a simple one; namely, that in America,
more than anywhere else, there is a disjuncture between the class
affiliations defined in the workplace and the ethnic and racial
affiliations established at home. Urban political parties and the
"machines" they administer are founded on the racial and ethnic
identities, so a class-based politics has been almost impossible to
establish. In discussing his chosen neighborhood, Katznelson notes
that it's an entirely residential community, developed mostly in
the 1920s, and originally comprised of mostly Jewish and Irish
working-class families. While Irish and Jews fought it out within
the strictures of urban politics to gain concessions and patronage
from City Hall, the entry of blacks and Hispanics in the 1960s
changed the picture; and Irish and Jews united, altering the
divisions from ethnic to racial lines. He then describes the
largely successful efforts by whites in the neighborhood to keep
power in their hands, to thwart genuine decentralization, and to
ride out the "crisis" of the Sixties. This case study, which
doesn't seem to prove any real thesis, is preceded by a lengthy
history of urban patterns in Europe and America, summarizing a lot
of secondary work and arguing that it is under capitalism that the
fatal separation of work and home takes on a special dimension.
What Washington Heights - Inwood has to do with medieval cities is
never firmly established. The conclusion is a pretentious summary
in which Katznelson warns that class is a slippery category and
that activists have to learn to take racial and ethnic identities
seriously. Two parts that, disappointingly, add up to very little.
(Kirkus Reviews)
In City Trenches, Ira Katznelson looks at an important phenomenon
of the sixties--the resurgence of community activism--and explains
its sources, challenges, and failure. Katznelson argues that the
American working class perceives workplace politics and community
politics as separate and distinct spheres, a perception that
defeats attempts to address grievances or raise demands that break
the rules of local politics or of bread-and-butter unionism. He
supports his thesis with an absorbing case study of Washington
Heights-Inwood, a multiethnic working-class community in Manhattan.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!