Raymond A. Mohl

Humanitarianism in the Preindustrial City: The New York Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, 1817–1823

THE course of American humanitarianism in the early nineteenth century was strongly influenced by the forces of social transformation which swept the nation after 1815.1 The disturbing and unwholesome results of heavy immigration, rapid urbanization, and industrialization particularly affected the rising seaport cities. In New York City reformers sought to remove the social ills associated with these changes, improve the quality of urban life, and restore order to an increasingly chaotic society. Voluntary associations were formed for every imaginable humanitarian purpose: to assist widows and orphans, immigrants and Negroes, debtors and prisoners, aged females and young prostitutes; to supply the poor with food, fuel, medicine, employment, and religion; to promote morality, temperance, thrift, and industrious habits; to educate poor children in free schools, Sunday schools, and charity schools; to reform gamblers, drinkers, criminals, juvenile delinquents, and ungodly sailors; and to purge the lower classes of their supposed vices. Although the spirit of Christian benevolence and the rationalism of the Enlightenment continued to motivate New Yorkers as it had in an earlier period, the demand for social control of a rapidly growing population and an ideology of moral stewardship increasingly compromised humanitarian fervor. In its attitudes, assumptions, and activities the New York Society for the Prevention of Pauperism (S.P.P.) typified philanthropic reform in the preindustrial city.2 Mr. Mohl is assistant professor of history in Florida Atlantic University. The author acknowledges the financial assistance of the Samuel Fels Fund, the American Philosophical Society, and the Indiana University Foundation.

Book Review: American Urban History: An Interpretative Reader with CommentariesAmerican Urban History: An Interpretative Reader with Commentaries. Edited by CallowAlexander B.Jr., New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 674.

the second son, also) are obliged to succeed their parents, while the younger sons are sent to cities to attend higher education As a result, the younger sons thus educated are inclined to dissociate themselves from their parents and elder sons, so that the second generation itself is divided into two stratums. Finally, Prof. Oono believes that Mr. Maeyamas standpoint reflect his special position in Brazil in which he himself still has to confront the wall of Brazilian community. However, the position of Mr. Maeyama and the second generation [apanese-Brazilians are not fundamentally different. Some delicate difference of opinions due to the difference of social position are the reality. I deem this volumes former purpose unique, although the latter aim of comparing two cultures is not fully accomplished. Yoichi Ishii Japan Emigration Service Tokyo