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Review
| Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City, by Daniel Eli Burnstein. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 148 pages. $38, cloth.
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| American social reformers faced perplexing obstacles at about the turn of the twentieth century. Urbanization, mass immigration, and industrialization created a myriad of social problems while America's independent self image, its Jeffersonian tradition, and its tendency to link social problems with individual morality discouraged solutions involving more than moral coercion from government. However, concern for civic sanitation and public health and cleanliness was linked with poverty and morality in the public mind. This provided social reformers an ideal cause, allowing them to pursue environmental solutions to social problems even while reinforcing efforts to influence behavior and encourage individual moral responsibility. It is this argument that Burnstein explores in his brief but thoroughly researched study of sanitation reform in Progressive Era New York City. Much like other present-minded historians of that period, Burnstein writes not only to shed light on progressives, but to defend them against generalized charges of social control while also encouraging modern reformers to learn from them. |
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Burnstein uses four case studies, each a separate chapter, to support his thesis. In the first chapter, he details the Department of Street Cleaning's strike of 1907. He recounts the public outcry that resulted when 750 workers refused to collect garbage until they were given a pay increase, better job security, and a forty-eight hour work week. It reminded citizens that there was political corruption within the DSC and aroused them because of the popular, if incomplete, notion that foul air caused the spread of disease. These factors helped the strikers win public support. Through his analysis of this case, Burnstein illustrates how public concern with sanitation reform resulted in acceptance of environmental reform. Next, Burnstein analyzes the career of George Waring, DSC commissioner from 1894–1898, the man most responsible for awakening public concern for civic sanitation in New York and for giving the DSC respectability. Burnstein praises Waring for his efforts to educate the public about civic sanitation, and for initiating reforms in labor relations, hiring, and garbage collection and disposal. Waring's career showed that civic sanitation could turn Mugwumps only interested in good government into true social reformers. In chapter three, Burnstein investigates the complex relationship between reformers and pushcart peddlers. The two were at odds since one wanted clean streets and the other dirtied and cluttered them, but they were brought together, Burnstein argues, because both desired to improve street peddlers' treatment and this required regulation of the industry. Finally, Burnstein turns readers' attention to juvenile street cleaning leagues, organizations designed to provide adolescents with productive activities, to educate them about civic sanitation, and to establish a culture of "contagious cleanliness." Because these leagues focused on educating the public about the reciprocal relationship between individuals and their communities, Burnstein maintains that they bridged the gap between them. Thus this case study also demonstrates that civic sanitation paired environmental reform with individual moral behavior. |
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Next to Godliness suffers from some minor stylistic faults. Without chronological flow, the narrative seems disjointed and at times repetitive and confusing, but these shortcomings are far outweighed by the book's strengths. Burnstein's argument is interesting and well-supported and the work makes a significant contribution to understanding progressivism. He manages to explore his very narrow topic without losing his focus on progressives generally. Throughout his work, he situates his subject within the larger context of the Progressive Movement and offers helpful explanations for how his case studies fit into it. The book is potentially very useful in the college classroom. His narrative is short and simple enough to be used in introductory courses, although it is best suited for upper-level courses on the Progressive Era. Next to Godliness would allow students to explore a variety of typical themes—urbanization, immigration, social control vs. environmental reformers, women reformers, and the growth of professionalism. Its brevity also gives instructors flexibility in creating assignments that do not overburden students. Even if not assigned to students, Next to Godliness can be used to enhance an instructor's presentations on environmental reformers. |
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| Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City |
Matt McCook |
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