Tag: space

James Connolly in his Bringing the City Back in: Space and Place in the Urban History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era discusses the importance differentiating between locations. Often individual cities like New York, Boston, Atlanta, or Charlotte get lumped together and described by a single general story of urbanization. Connolly cites a novel by Edward Bellamy, Looking Backwards. In the novel, the city named is Boston, but the description could apply to nearly any city. The main character meets unnamed workers; everything remains anonymous. To a certain extent, this picture is not entirely inaccurate. Cities and urbanization seem to increase anonymity. One may live in a city skyscraper and not know the hundreds of people who live around you. Walking down the street, people keep their heads focused on the sidewalk and do not wave to every person they pass. In a small rural town, on the other hand, one might know all the details of a neighbor’s life and walking down main street turns into long conversations about an ailing relative. While these images are obviously stereotypical, there still seems to be some use in generally classifying cities.

While this general sweep may be useful and efficient, it is also important to note that each location will be unique. Generalities are just that—general. Every city, every neighborhood, every block will have a distinctive flavor and feel. Indeed, some of the tiny differences may be the most important place for historians to examine. For instance, Mary Lethert Wingerd suggests that differences between two places may contribute to the development of the location. The usual argument goes: St. Paul possibly developed more conservative politics that nearby Minneapolis because St. Paul was composed mostly of a conservative Irish-Catholic working class where as Minneapolis’ Scandinavian/Yankee Protestants were less conservative. Wingerd says the difference might have more to do with the “civic culture” of St. Paul derived from the relationship of business and labor and the Catholic Church.

Richard Schneirov’s piece focuses more on the economics of the Gilded Age. He ends listing some characteristics of the gilded age such as social instability and capital accumulation. These are the generalities that Connolly talked about, although they apply to economics rather than cities. Economics might also benefit from Connolly’s location-specific emphasis. New York probably has a very different economic landscape from New Orleans.

In the blog post the Merit of Specificity, this central question was posed, “Is the generalized overview more illuminating than the examination of a specific instance, or vice versa?” I think this question gets to the heart of the matter. I would say that both views are useful. Generalities may be simpler, easier, and can reveal accurate larger trends; yet they also obscure individuals. Look at specific cases may be illuminating and more specifically accurate, but it is difficult to look at every single thing on an individual scale.