In an effort to create a secure urban environment in which
residents can work, live, and prosper with minimal disruption, New
York and London established a network of laws, policing, and
municipal government in the nineteenth century aimed at building
the confidence of the citizenry and creating stability for economic
growth. At the same time, these two world cities attempted to
maintain an expansive level of free speech and assembly, concepts
deeply ingrained in both national cultures. As democracy expanded
in tandem with the size of the cities themselves, the two goals
clashed, resulting in tensions over their compatibility.
The results of this clash continue to resonate in our society
today. Treating nineteenth-century London and New York as case
studies, Lisa Keller examines the critical development of
sanctioned free speech, controlled public assembly, new urban
regulations, and the quelling of riots, all in the name of a proper
regard for order. Drawing on rich archival sources that include the
unpublished correspondence of government officials and ordinary
citizens, Keller paints an intimate portrait of daily life in these
two cities and the intricacies of their emerging bureaucracies. She
finds that New York eventually settled on a policy of preempting
disruption before it occurred, while London chose a path of greater
tolerance toward street activities.
Dividing her history into five categories--cities, police and
militia, the public, free speech and assembly, and the law--Keller
concludes with an assessment of freedom in these cities today and
asks whether the scales have been tipped too strongly on the side
of order and control. Public officials increasingly use permits,
fees, and bureaucratic hassles to frustrate the ability of
reformers and protesters to make their voices heard, and by doing
so, she argues, they strike at the very foundations of
democracy.
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