Ryan, Mary P. Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Examines civic life in three nineteenth-century cities selected for the heterogeneity and fractiousness of their populations--New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Describes the creation of a robust democratic political culture between the approximate dates of 1825 and 1850, discussing city space, civic ceremonies, and public meetings. Examines the civic disorders that broke out in cities in the 1850s and continued through the Civil War. Details a sequence of critical alterations in the organization of city space, culture, and politics in the last part of the century. Ryan is Professor of History and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Selected bibliography; index.