Urban Village [Paperback]

Stephanie Grauman Wolf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1980

Most studies of eighteenth-century community life in America have focused on New England, and in many respects the New England town has become a model for our understanding of communities throughout the United States during this period. In this study of a mid-Atlantic town, the author describes a very different way of organizing society, indicating that the New England model may prove atypical. In addition, her analysis suggests the origins of twentieth-century social patterns in eighteenth-century life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A pioneering American community study.... [It] provides a vivid sense of the lives of its people. Beyond the methodological creativity and its conceptual coherence, it touches always the pulse of daily dilemmas and desires. -- American Historical Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (May 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691005907
• ISBN-13: 978-0691005904
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,006,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Urban Village - Philadelphia and the German Township, January 19, 2003

By 

John F. Hickey (Morgantown, WV, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Urban Village (Paperback)

Stevie Wolf's Urban Village is the best single resource on Philadelphia and the German Township.
In 1694, William Penn welcomed thirteen German Quaker families, granting them land which became the German Township. In 1800, in a movement driven by expatriate Philadelphians who had moved to Germantown and Chesnut Hill to escape the yellow fever epidemics, the German Township became part of Philadelphia. This is the history of the independent German Township.
Ms Wolf gives us fascinating details of day-to-day life, garnered from primary sources like original census records and analysis of garbage middens. The census records present puzzles: why, for instance, would families name their children "crazy" and "pecky?" Ms. Wolf figures it out. In their new country, German families were giving their daughters "English" names, like "Gracie" and "Becky," but pronouncing the names in a way which sounded to English-speaking census takers like "crazy" and "pecky." Details like this are integrated into a compelling story of social change.
From the point of view of sociological history, Ms. Wolf contrasts this "urban village," sitting along the ridgeline where ran the "great road" from Philadelphia, with the isolated New England towns which are thought of as typical of early America. Germantown is an urban village even today, and this book provides an invaluable depth and dimension to today's experience.