15 research outputs found
Dying City
No full textIn this eye-opening cultural history, Brian Tochterman examines competing narratives that shaped post–World War II New York City. As a sense of crisis rose in American cities during the 1960s and 1970s, a period defined by suburban growth and deindustrialization, no city was viewed as in its death throes more than New York. Feeding this narrative of the dying city was a wide range of representations in film, literature, and the popular press--representations that ironically would not have been produced if not for a city full of productive possibilities as well as challenges. Tochterman reveals how elite culture producers, planners and theorists, and elected officials drew on and perpetuated the fear of death to press for a new urban vision. It was this narrative of New York as the dying city, Tochterman argues, that contributed to a burgeoning and broad anti-urban political culture hostile to state intervention on behalf of cities and citizens. Ultimately, the author shows that New York’s decline--and the decline of American cities in general--was in part a self-fulfilling prophecy bolstered by urban fear and the new political culture nourished by it.</p
Doctor Adolf Tochterman (1892-1955) – medical doctor from Radom, officer of Polish Army and social activist
No full textW artykule przedstawiono życie i działalność Adolfa Tochtermana – polskiego lekarza, uważanego za jednego z najbardziej zasłużonych lekarzy dla społeczeństwa miasta Radomia. Autor dotarł do wszystkich dostępnych źródeł informacji, o których istnieniu wiedział. Oprócz materiałów typowo archiwalnych, szeroko wykorzystał wspomnienia żyjących pacjentów Adolfa Tochtermana oraz członków jego rodziny. Ponadto zebrał liczne lokalne publikacje dotyczące osoby Adolfa Tochtermana (zwłaszcza w lokalnej prasie), wyjaśniając wiele wątpliwości i nieścisłości dotyczących jego życiorysu (w szczególności przynależności narodowej, działalności naukowej, relacji z niemieckimi władzami okupacyjnymi w latach 1939-1945). Wyniki prac autora pozwoliły na całościowe przedstawienie sylwetki Adolfa Tochtermana jako lekarza, organizatora lokalnej służby zdrowia, oficera Wojska Polskiego, osoby prywatnej, człowieka, który przeżył trzy wielkie wojny, w których niósł pomoc rannym i chorym.This article presents the life and activity of Adolf Tochterman – Polish medical doctor, considered as one of the most prominent and supportive medical doctor for the society of the Radom city. Author of the article used all the available sources of information known to him. Except of the typically archival materials, the author used memories of still living patients of Adolf Tochterman and memories of his family members. Moreover, the author collected numerous, local publications related to Adolf Tochterman (particularly those obtained from local newspapers), explaining numerous doubts and inaccuracies related to his CV (in particular – his nationality, scientifical activity, relations to the German authorities on Polish territory during years 1939-1945). Result of author’s work allowed to present the wholistic silhouette of Adolfa Tochterman as medical doctor, organizer of local medical services, officer of Polish Army, private person and as human being who survived three great wars where he cured wounded and sick people
Mickey Spillane’s Necropolis
No full textThis chapter links the biography and ideology of best-selling pulp author Mickey Spillane with the emergent image of the dying city after World War II. Spillane crafted an image of New York City as physically decaying, demographically in flux, and overrun by violent criminals. These problems required an authoritarian response, illustrated by the character of Mike Hammer, a private investigator turned vigilante who skirts due process to restore order. Spillane’s work offered a template for various critics of New York in the postwar era, as demonstrated in the chapters that follow.</p
Introduction
No full textIn July 1975, with the threat of bankruptcy looming, the New York Times asked eighteen “urban experts,” mostly prominent economists, social scientists, and theorists, “What should be done to solve New York City’s dilemma?”1 Since 1969 the city had lost nearly 500,000 jobs, and twice as many middle-class taxpayers had left New York in the decade prior. The city’s woes were indicative of broader trends, as the national economy foundered as a result of geopolitical conflict with countries in Southeast and Middle East Asia, deindustrialization, and the fitful transition to a postindustrial order at home. In this context, New York’s generous social democracy, structured around inclusive unionized public employment and equal access to public services, struggled to survive. In the spring of 1975, as Saigon fell, New York effectively defaulted on its debts, unable to pay its bills and with nary a willing lender....</p
The Case for Municipal Surgery
No full textThis chapter examines the popular writings of New York City’s master builder Robert Moses. In newspaper and magazine articles Moses framed the need for slum clearance and redevelopment through the lens of the dying city, labelling slums a cancer that could kill New York. Thus, he employed fear to allow room for his technocratic experts to remake the city on a large scale.</p
The Lure of Decay
No full textThis chapter examines the appropriation of the dying city by New York City natives and migrants drawn by the lure of decay, and the cultural explosion that followed, which birthed the downtown art scene, hip-hop, and new wave or punk music. This moment epitomized “the right to the city,” a more radical interpretation of Cosmopolis, making New York an open city in the 1970s.</p
Farewell to the Universal City
No full textFocusing on the Summer 1961 issue of Dissent, which was a multifaceted examination of New York City and its problems, this chapter shows how the image of the city in decline played a role in the unravelling of the “New York Intellectuals.” Contributors from the “Old Left” split with contributors from the “New Left” in their depictions of New York at this critical juncture. This had implications not only for ideology at a personal level for these intellectuals, but for the governing ideology around urbanism during a period of crisis.</p
Untangling the Pathologies of Ungovernability
No full textIn The Other America, Michael Harrington highlighted the persistence of poverty in New York City in an otherwise affluent era, hoping to spur federal policy that could help struggling neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bowery. As this chapter highlights, however, Harrington’s work ignited a debate on “urban pathologies” centered on New York. Conservative commentators took up Harrington’s representation of an urban “culture of poverty” to perpetuate a narrative of a pathological “underclass” destroying cities like New York</p
Epilogue
No full textAssessing the landscape since the 1960s in the pages of Dissent, Marshall Berman noted that “things that happen in New York are beamed instantly all over America, indeed, the world, thanks to all the mass media that are located here. Facts become symbols instantly—often long before they are understood.” During the urban crisis, “New York came to symbolize ‘urban violence.’” These words appeared in the Fall 1987 issue, “In Search of New York,” after ten years of postcrisis restructuring under Mayor Edward Koch. ...</p
A Review of “The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad”
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