The Character of the City Boston in J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston
In this course we have learned that a city's character is "a legacy for seeing, interpreting, exploiting, and transforming its social, cultural and political opportunities as a physical community." How is it possible for a city like Boston to have character? Well, the institutional and cultural continuity along with the resistance and reconstruction of culture has allowed the character of Boston to be defined simply by the underlying idea of conflict. Through J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, we can see that the catalyst for this sense of conflict has been social dissentions between classes and races. These dissentions are clearly detailed through both the Urban Renewal plans of Mission Hill in the 1960s and 1970s and the school busing case of 1974.When looking at the character of Boston one must understand the amount of controversy our city has encountered as well as the way they have identified and resolved these crisis's. Through this deduction along with my own personal experience of living in Boston a step towards finding a distinct character of Boston may be possible.
When analyzing conflict as the character of Boston, you will find that conflict is triadic not dyadic. This means that there are three parties involved instead of just two parties. This is important when looking at the two issues of urban renewal and busing. The concept of conflict includes established insiders with many options, struggling insiders with some options and ascendant outsiders with few or no options. When comparing this information to both urban renewal c...
... middle of paper ...
...Boston a better place to be because it has already experienced so many things. From early revolutionary leaders to the fairly recent quota case at Boston Latin, Boston had seen its share of social dissention. Boston has resolved conflicts between different groups very professionally and orderly. In the past thirty years since the busing case not many cases of racial problems have surfaced. I think Boston provides the country with a very detailed and specific look at its issues. It seems that all sides of the issue are looked at very carefully before a decision is made. Through the urban renewal case and the busing case of 1974 one can see that when finding a distinct characteristic one would find conflict to be it. This sense of conflict surrounds every issue and blankets the ideas expressed in the movie, Mission Hill Miracle of Boston and the book Common Ground.
In the essay, “Boston and New York in the Eighteenth Century” by author Pauline Maier describes the duties and personalities to the American colonial cities and what made New York and Boston so exclusive and distinctive from one another by the point of the eighteenth century. Maier comes to an end of the cities that are being observed and concentrated functions of the Boston and New York were the local capitals and important to the cultural centers of newspapers and pamphlets being advertised, deliberated, and delivered. In the seventeenth century, the Boston merchants had encountered with their colony’s Puritan leaders to separate Massachusetts from the Old World contamination to verify the demands of commerce. New York and Boston have their differences not only in the people or legislation, but the feelings and character that surrounded culture. They did a request of the characteristics of how they establish and continue over the time also their effects in the American history.
...itish government. In Boston, the site of a bloody confrontation between British redcoats and Americans citizens less than 10 years before, emotions ran high. Boston was a center of agitation and finally on the night of December 16,1773, the course of world history was changed. A revolutionary event was on the horizon. As once patriot mournfully observed, “Our cause is righteous and I have no doubt of final success. But I see our generation, and perhaps out whole land, drown in blood.” (Liberty, 2) The rest is history.
...he city and has suffered as a result of losing so much of its tax base to the 1967 riots. The event should be used as a cautionary tale to other cities in transition to be cognizant of demographic changes and represent all of your citizens living within your city.
Boston was the largest harbors during the colonial era. Products going to and from Britain were rotating out of Boston daily. When word reached Boston of the...
The book “Boston Against Busing: Race, Class and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s” written by Ronald P. Formisano examines the opposition of court-ordered desegregation through forced busing. The author comes to the conclusion that the issue surrounding integration is a far more complex issue than just racism that enveloped the southern half of the country during this time period. Formisano argues that there were broader elements including a class struggle, white backlash and “reactionary populism” that contributed to the emotions of those involved.
On March 5th, 1770 the colonists were going to protest against the British rule because they were being unfair to the colonists, with taxes being passed without the colonists’ approval. The proclamation of 1763 didn’t help stopping people from settling across the Appalachian mountains even though people fought for it. Also each house had to house and feed a soldier. Many other taxes on different items also caused colonists to be angry. Many started to protest one of these protests had the colonists in front of government building with weapons the British soldiers then fired killing five and injuring others. There was not a massacre on March 5, 1770 in Boston because there was not a massacre on March 5, 1770 in Boston because less than ten colonists
Dumenil, Lynn, ed. "New York City." The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2012. Oxford Reference. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
“It was if there was a social moat that divided these two New Yorks.” This quote from the movie The Central Park Five, explains the divide between the poor part of New York, such as Harlem, and the upper class areas. This divide was caused by an economic crisis that changed the social dynamics of the city. This change allowed for consequences such as the injustice of the Central Park Five and the causes of this injustice can be explained by three different theoretical perspectives: the Structural Functionalist Perspective, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective.
The town of Boston was a very unstable throughout the 1760’s. This instability quickly turned to violence in the early part of 1770’s. Tension had already begun to in the beginning of the year with various clashes between the British and the colonists. However, in early March the tensions erupted into bloodshed to create what we now know as the Boston Massacre. The occurrence of these events is a fact, however, the interpretations of them has changed over time. The reports are colored by events that are taking place during the period of time in which they were written and by the author’s own prejudices and opinions. However, we can use these imperfections as a way of tracking what is occurring in America and the state of politics.
This text also persuades readers about how race is an issue of gentrification. The author’s claims on the issues show that gentrification is mainly influenced by race and income. The writer wrote the text also to show how the media can be influential to be discouraging poor colored communities, criticizing the views on gentrification in those areas. There are some persuasive appeals that are supported by the author in the text. The first is Ethos, he is a credible source in his claims retelling his own experience as a paramedic and how his patient impacted his criticism on how the media portrays the “hood” as being atrocious and worthless in the community. The author also attempts to convince his readers through his own emotions, including specific evidence and claims for his appeals. The second persuasive appeal used is pathos when he explains how these communities are dealt with moving place to place being invaded from their own residence and businesses. The third persuasive appeals he presents is logos, which he describes the situation of the the people being affected by this issue first hand to show the reader it is a mistaken
Pruitt, Dean G, and Sung Hee Kim. Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate, and Settlement. 3rd ed. 2004. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2004.
The Bostonians, was first published by Henry James as a serial in a magazine and only 1886 did it get turned into a book. This novel tells an intricate story of the relationships and ideals between men and women of the time in which the story is set. The book has within itself many underlining themes that are emphasized by the characters personalities and natures; and the events surrounding the historical context of this novel i.e. the events of the civil war and its influence. The use of personification to reflect the complexity of the situation evokes emotions which speak to the larger issues presented by the story, the idea of gender, region and national memory.
Bowden, Catherine Drinker, John Adams and the American Revolution. Boston: The Little, Brown and Company, 1949.
Jacobs, Jane. "12-13." The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. N. pag. Print.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.