| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Making Houses, Crafting Capitalism: Builders in Philadelphia, 1790–1850. By Donna J. Rilling. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. xii, 261 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-8122-3580-0.)

There is a continued need for books dealing both with the history of work and with the development of capitalism. It is a need that Donna J. Rilling satisfies at least within one important local setting. Utilizing a rich variety of court and business records, Rilling has crafted a history of the Philadelphia building industry that is as solid as the best houses constructed by her subjects. 1

In some respects, this is a story familiar to those who have some knowledge of the housing industry and of the changeover from a craft-oriented to an industrial economy in the first half of the nineteenth century. In other respects, however, it has important unique features. The home building industry retained a strong craft character that often allowed ambitious artisans to move upward to the level of master builders, the businessmen who deployed capital and organized labor. In Philadelphia, the opportunity to rise was broadened by a system of ground rents that allowed builders to acquire control of the land they needed without having to use their limited capital to purchase it. . . .

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