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City Trenches

Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States

In City Trenches, Ira Katznelson looks at an important phenomenon of the sixties—the resurgence of community activism—and explains its sources, challenges, and failure. Katznelson argues that the American working class perceives workplace politics and community politics as separate and distinct spheres, a perception that defeats attempts to address grievances or raise demands that break the rules of local politics or of bread-and-butter unionism. He supports his thesis with an absorbing case study of Washington Heights-Inwood, a multiethnic working-class community in Manhattan.

286 pages | 6 x 9 | © 1982

Political Science: Urban Politics

Table of Contents

Personal Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part One: American Patterns of Urbanism and Class
2. Community, Capitalist Development, and the Emergence of Class
3. City Trenches
4. The Making of Northern Manhattan
Part Two: The Crisis of the City
5. Remaking of Northern Manhattan
6. Assaults on the Trenches
7. Innovation and Reform, 1969-1974
Part Three: Conclusion
8. Social Theory, Urban Movements, and Social Change
Appendix: Methodological Notes
Notes
Index

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