Housing and the Democratic Ideal: The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams

362 Pages·2000·1.48 MB·English

by  A. Scott. Henderson

housing & the Democratic Ideal
v
the columbia history of urban life
kenneth t. jackson, general editor
the columbia history of urban life
kenneth t. jackson, general editor
Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews
1981
Edward K. Spann, The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840-1857 1981
Matthew Edel, Elliott D. Sclar, and Daniel Luria, Shaky Palaces:
Homeownership and Social Mobility in Boston’s Suburbanization 1984
Steven J. Ross, Workers on the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in
Industrializing Cincinnati, 1788-1890 1985
Andrew Lees, Cities Perceived: Urban Society in European and American
Thought,1820-1940 1985
R. J. R. Kirkby, Urbanization in China: Town and Country in a Developing
Economy, 1949-2000a.d. 1985
Judith Ann Trolander, Professionalism and Social Change: From the Settlement
House Movement to Neighborhood Centers, 1886to the Present 1987
Marc A. Weiss,The Rise of the Community Builders: The American Real Estate
Industry and Urban Land Planning 1987
Jacqueline Leavitt and Susan Saegert, From Abandonment to Hope:
Community-Households in Harlem 1990
Richard Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City: Dwelling Type and
Social Change in the American Metropolis 1990
David Hamer,New Towns in the New World: Images and Perceptions of the
Nineteenth-Century Urban Frontier 1990
Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass
Consumption, and the Search for American Identity 1990
Chris McNickle, To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City 1993
Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City
1994
Clarence Taylor, The Black Churches of Brooklyn 1994
Frederick Binder and David Reimers, “All the Nations Under Heaven”:
A Racial and Ethnic History of New York City 1995
Clarence Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the
Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools 1997
Andrew S. Dolkart, Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and
Developement 1998
Craig Steven Wilder, A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn
2000
housing
& the Democratic Ideal
v
The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams
A. Scott Henderson
C
Columbia University Press
new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2000Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Henderson, A. Scott.
Housing and the democratic ideal : the life and thought of
Charles Abrams / A. Scott Henderson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-231-11950-X (cl) — ISBN 0-231-11951-8(pbk.)
1. Abrams, Charles, 1902–1970. 2. Housing policy—
United States—History—20th century.
3. Sociologists—United States—Biography. I. Title.
HD7293.H4642000
363.5'092—dc21
[B] 00-020693
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books
are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To: M. H., R. H., and R. P.
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Contents
v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Immigration and Community in the Expanding Metropolis 8
2. Law, Real Estate, and Praxis 24
3. From Tenement Laws to Housing Authorities:
Social Provision and the New Deal State 45
4. Vision and Reality: Implementing Policy on the Local Level 60
5. The Practitioner as Scholar: Urban Studies and
the Conflict Between “Land” and “Industry” 83
6. Federal Housing Policies and the Problem of
a “Business Welfare State” 99
7. “The Walls of Stuyvesant Town”: Urban Redevelopment and
the Struggle Between Public and Private Power 122
8. The Quest for Open Housing: Racial Discrimination and
the Role of the State 146
9. Cold War, the United Nations, and “Technical Assistance” 173
10. Urban Renewal, the “Perversion” of Social Reform, and
Home Ownership for the Poor 193
11. “When the Grey Mist Subsides” 215
Notes 231
Bibliography 315
Index 333
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Acknowledgments
v
I owe thanks to many people for helping me complete this book.
During my initial investigations, Michael Ebner, Eugenie Birch, and
Ken Jackson confirmed that no full-length study of Charles Abrams
existed; I appreciate their encouragement of me to undertake such a
project. Herbert Finch and Lorna Knight, archivists at Cornell
University and curators of the Abrams papers, provided crucial assis-
tance whenever I called upon them. Archivists and librarians at other
institutions also provided significant help. These institutions include:
the Archives of American Art, Buffalo State University, Clemson
University, Columbia University, Columbia University Oral History
Project, Erie County Public Library, Furman University, Georgetown
University, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, LaGuardia and
Wagner Archives, Library of Congress, New School for Social Research,
New-York Historical Society, New York Public Library, New York State
Commission on Human Rights, Princeton University, Social Welfare
History Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, State University
of New York at Buffalo, University of California at Berkeley, University
of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.