Local Attachments: The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920 by Alexander von Hoffman

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 367 LocalAttachments: The Making ofan American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920. By Alexander von Hoffman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Pp. xxiv+311; illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95. Alexander von Hoffman’s LocalAttachments: The Making ofan Amer­ ican Urban Neighborhood, 1850-1920, is not only an excellent neigh­ borhood history ofJamaica Plain, a district annexed by Boston in 1874; it is also a revisionist history which attacks some long-held views on the effects ofurbanization and industrialization on local commu­ nities. Von Hoffman, a professor ofurban history at Harvard Univer­ sity, uses this case study to show “how the modern urban neighbor­ hood emerged in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century” (p. xviii). He sees a vitality in the city, cen­ tered around its neighborhoods and their inner relations, which has long been ignored or downplayed by historians and sociologists alike. Von Hoffman takes issue with the common view that urbanization and industrialization destroyed local communities. He quite con­ vincingly argues that “local attachments” were merely transferred from the small towns and rural villages of the early 19th century to the city neighborhoods that grew up all over the urbanizing United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His focus is the period between 1850 and 1920, for two reasons: first, the roots of urbanization were clearly discernible by mid-century; and second, Boston and its population grew significantly then, mostly through annexation of surrounding towns, a process facilitated by the intro­ duction of railroads and streetcars and one that created strains among the population. Von Hoffman argues thatJamaica Plain and other “neighborhoods served as important centers of gravity within the complex social organization of the city” during this period, and he writes of the “origins of the intense localism that characterized it” (p. xxii). The work is divided into eight chapters and contains excellent maps, charts, and plenty of photographs. The first two chapters are mostly historical and trace Jamaica Plain’s growth from an urban fringe area with many large open spaces, few commuters, and manu­ facturing establishments centered around noxious industries, to a heterogeneous urban neighborhood with many commuters and multifarious ties to the larger city. Chapter 3 focuses on Jamaica Plain’s physical development and the creation of public, landscaped parks and areas, most notably Frederick Law Olmsted’s Franklin Park. That park defined the geographical boundaries of Jamaica Plain, promoting a sense of community. It also markedjust how far Jamaica Plainers would go in seeing themselves as part of the larger city and its universalist political and social reformers. The next four chapters form the heart of von Hoffman’s main 368 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE thesis: urban growth actually produced the neighborhood and its identity through its impact on economic, social, and political inter­ action in Jamaica Plain. Commerce, manufacturing, business, and real estate projects fostered neighborhood ties and brought together the area’s different social classes and ethnic communities. But at the same time, “external relations nurtured the internal growth of neighborhood society and promoted neighborhood identity ofplace within the urban matrix” (p. 119). Factory owners, merchants, and shopkeepers were likely to live in the community, building social bonds as well as economic ones. The ties fashioned within Jamaica Plain were manifest in the political and governmental issues of the time, promoting a pro-growth philosophy and demand for neighbor­ hood and infrastructure improvements, but they also led to some conflicts. Those on both sides of the annexation debate, for exam­ ple, saw themselves as advancing the best interests ofJamaica Plain. After annexation, however, the city reform movement, guided by universalist principles ofcentralized control and administration, un­ dermined neighborhood attachments. Instead of promoting unity among Boston’s different social classes and ethnic groups, the re­ form movement drove them further apart—to Boston’s detriment, von Hoffman argues. In the final chapter, von Hoffman offers an analysis of 20th-cen­ tury urban life and calls for a return to the “neighborhood society” of yesteryear. At first glance this may seem a little naive. However, von Hoffman does not simply wish to return to the turn-of-the...