Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City

by Stephan Thernstrom

Embedded in the consciousness of Americans throughout much of the country’s history has been the American Dream: that every citizen, no matter how humble his beginnings, is free to climb to the top of the social and economic ladder. Poverty and Progress assesses the claims of the American Dream against the actual structure of economic and social opportunities in a typical nineteenth century industrial community―Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Here is local history. With the aid of newspapers, census reports, and local tax, school, and savings bank records Stephan Thernstrom constructs a detailed and vivid portrait of working class life in Newburyport from 1850 to 1880, the critical years in which this old New England town was transformed into a booming industrial city. To determine how many self-made men there really were in the community, he traces the career patterns of hundreds of obscure laborers and their sons over this thirty year period, exploring in depth the differing mobility patterns of native-born and Irish immigrant workmen. Out of this analysis emerges the conclusion that opportunities for occupational mobility were distinctly limited. Common laborers and their sons were rarely able to attain middle class status, although many rose from unskilled to semiskilled or skilled occupations.

But another kind of mobility was widespread. Men who remained in lowly laboring jobs were often strikingly successful in accumulating savings and purchasing homes and a plot of land. As a result, the working class was more easily integrated into the community; a new basis for social stability was produced which offset the disruptive influences that accompanied the first shock of urbanization and industrialization.

Since Newburyport underwent changes common to other American cities, Thernstrom argues, his findings help to illuminate the social history of nineteenth century America and provide a new point of departure for gauging mobility trends in our society today. Correlating the Newburyport evidence with comparable studies of twentieth century cities, he refutes the popular belief that it is now more difficult to rise from the bottom of the social ladder than it was in the idyllic past. The “blocked mobility” theory was proposed by Lloyd Warner in his famous “Yankee City” studies of Newburyport; Thernstrom provides a thorough critique of the “Yankee City” volumes and of the ahistorical style of social research which they embody.

Genres: History, Sociology, Nonfiction, School

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1964

About the author

Stephan Thernstrom was an American academic and historian who was the Winthrop Research Professor of History Emeritus at Harvard University. He was a specialist in ethnic and social history and was the editor of the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. He and his wife Abigail Thernstrom were prominent opponents of affirmative action in education and according to the New York Times, they "lead the conservative charge against racial preference in America."

Reviews

[Barb H]

I read this book many years ago, but rediscovered it while sorting through my personal library. The subtitle, Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City , describes the content well. It tells of the multiple trials of workers in a factory town, Newburyport, MA, from 1850-1880. Of particular interest to me, aside from the fact that it was a telling narrative, was that I had lived in this town for about six months. It is in the northeast portion of Massachusetts, close to New Hampshire, sitting on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. When I was there, it was tired, drab and aside from a few historical buildings, had little to redeem it. Also it is located quite near Haverhill, MA, another old mill town and aptly described in the 20th century memoir, Townie, by Andre Dubus, III. In the latter book, as in Thernstrom's, one could easily sense the effects of failed mill towns in the next century.

[Czarny Pies]

This book is a great classic in quantitative American Social history. By entering into a computer the data from the city directories of Boston 1880 to 1970 Thermston proved that Americans were a highly mobile people as in each decade the average term at any address for a family was seven years.

Thernstrom makes the easily challenged assumption that physical mobility could he equated to upward social mobility. In other words people were constantly moving into new and better digs.

Of course some of the mobility must have been downward; i.e. the movement was from more desirable to less desirable accommodation. Nonetheless whether the mobility was upward, downward or simply bobbed like a yo-yo, Thernstrom does in fact conclusively prove that since the time of the Civil War, American society has been very mobile physically and his opinion that physical mobility can be equated with social mobility appears reasonable.

[Mark Bowles]

Stephan Thernstrom, The Other Bostonians; Poverty, in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970, (1971)
1. Demonstrates that urban population was more mobile than previously believed
2. Although rags-to-riches is a myth, socioeconomic mobility is a persistent characteristic from 1880-1970
3. Quantitative history

[Laura]

American history