Book Review

Canada and the United States

Jared N. Day ventures into one of the "gray areas" of urban history. His book explores the character and influence of landlords, particularly small-scale tenement owners who were neither workers nor part of a propertied elite. Day provides a thorough account of the shifting forms of tenement ownership and management in early twentieth-century New York City and documents the increasing difficulty landlords had coping with tenant activism and regulatory pressures. The richness of this portrayal is the book's strength, one that ironically defies Day's attempt to graft it onto a framework of "corporate advocacy."

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After a brief history of land ownership in New York City, Day commences his analysis with a discussion of real estate conditions in late nineteenth-century Manhattan. Property owners in this era had a free hand to manage their affairs, with little interference from local government. Tenants had no legal standing in rental disputes and were easily evicted. Tenement reform focused on improving the social environment but did little to empower working-class renters in clashes with property owners and managers. In a fascinating chapter on ethnic tenement landlords, Day discusses the diverse forms of property ownership and financing. While some were wealthy property holders, many were shakily financed working-class entrepreneurs able to maintain just one or two properties.

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