Awards

• Winner of Co-recipient - Kenneth Jackson Award 2009

Overview

In an effort to create a secure urban environment in which residents can work, live, and prosper with minimal disruption, New York and London established a network of laws, policing, and municipal government in the nineteenth century aimed at building the confidence of the citizenry and creating stability for economic growth. At the same time, these two world cities attempted to maintain an expansive level of free speech and assembly, concepts deeply ingrained in both national cultures. As democracy expanded in tandem with the size of the cities themselves, the two goals clashed, resulting in tensions over their compatibility. The results of this clash continue to resonate in our society today. Treating nineteenth-century London and New York as case studies, Lisa Keller examines the critical development of sanctioned free speech, controlled public assembly, new urban regulations, and the quelling of riots, all in the name of a proper regard for order. Drawing on rich archival sources that include the unpublished correspondence of government officials and ordinary citizens, Keller paints an intimate portrait of daily life in these two cities and the intricacies of their emerging bureaucracies. She finds that New York eventually settled on a policy of preempting disruption before it occurred, while London chose a path of greater tolerance toward street activities. Dividing her history into five categories-cities, police and militia, the public, free speech and assembly, and the law-Keller concludes with an assessment of freedom in these cities today and asks whether the scales have been tipped too strongly on the side of order and control. Public officials increasingly use permits, fees, and bureaucratic hassles to frustrate the ability of reformers and protesters to make their voices heard, and by doing so, she argues, they strike at the very foundations of democracy.

Full Product Details

9780231146739

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Reviews

Triumph of Order offers smart insights into how a city defines quality of life. -- Sam Roberts, New York Times Triumph of Order is the all-too-rare scholarly book that, being so well written, is fully accessible to the proverbial general reader. -- Howard P. Segal, Times Higher Education Supplement Lisa Keller's meticulously researched book invites consideration of a range of issues concerning the urban environment and the politics of public health that will be of interest beyond her major audience of political historians. -- Samantha MacBride, H-Urban Detailed and illuminating... Throughout her study, Keller compares the historical evidence to twenty-first-century events and compellingly demonstrates how nineteenth-century antecedents have contributed to modern-day perspectives and positions. This brings a refreshing sense of relevance and significance, which is so often lacking from historical studies. -- Journal of American Studies

Author Information

Lisa Keller is associate professor of history at Purchase College, State University of New York. She worked for ten years in Europe as a professor and journalist.

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