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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities
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Poverty and Progress - Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Paperback, New Ed)
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Poverty and Progress - Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Paperback, New Ed)
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Embedded in the consciousness of Americans throughout much of the
country's history has been the American Dream: that every citizen,
no matter how humble his beginnings, is free to climb to the top of
the social and economic ladder. Poverty and Progress assesses the
claims of the American Dream against the actual structure of
economic and social opportunities in a typical nineteenth century
industrial community-Newburyport, Massachusetts. Here is local
history. With the aid of newspapers, census reports, and local tax,
school, and savings bank records Stephan Thernstrom constructs a
detailed and vivid portrait of working class life in Newburyport
from 1850 to 1880, the critical years in which this old New England
town was transformed into a booming industrial city. To determine
how many self-made men there really were in the community, he
traces the career patterns of hundreds of obscure laborers and
their sons over this thirty year period, exploring in depth the
differing mobility patterns of native-born and Irish immigrant
workmen. Out of this analysis emerges the conclusion that
opportunities for occupational mobility were distinctly limited.
Common laborers and their sons were rarely able to attain middle
class status, although many rose from unskilled to semiskilled or
skilled occupations. But another kind of mobility was widespread.
Men who remained in lowly laboring jobs were often strikingly
successful in accumulating savings and purchasing homes and a plot
of land. As a result, the working class was more easily integrated
into the community; a new basis for social stability was produced
which offset the disruptive influences that accompanied the first
shock of urbanization and industrialization. Since Newburyport
underwent changes common to other American cities, Thernstrom
argues, his findings help to illuminate the social history of
nineteenth century America and provide a new point of departure for
gauging mobility trends in our society today. Correlating the
Newburyport evidence with comparable studies of twentieth century
cities, he refutes the popular belief that it is now more difficult
to rise from the bottom of the social ladder than it was in the
idyllic past. The "blocked mobility" theory was proposed by Lloyd
Warner in his famous "Yankee City" studies of Newburyport;
Thernstrom provides a thorough critique of the "Yankee City"
volumes and of the ahistorical style of social research which they
embody.
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