Difference between revisions of "426--Week 4 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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'''Sources:''' How might the available sources skew our understanding of poor working class families? Most of the sources in this book seem to be court cases and personal accounts, which is probably all we have available to us, but these sources were probably all written by middle or upper class people. I wonder if the descriptions of filth and squalor of the tenements and the raucous inhabitants are at all skewed because they come from outside observers. I think Stansell speaks to this a bit when she talks about how the "home visits" (and the resulting tracts) from the evangelical middle class were in large part about the self-definition of the middle class. -- Rebecca | '''Sources:''' How might the available sources skew our understanding of poor working class families? Most of the sources in this book seem to be court cases and personal accounts, which is probably all we have available to us, but these sources were probably all written by middle or upper class people. I wonder if the descriptions of filth and squalor of the tenements and the raucous inhabitants are at all skewed because they come from outside observers. I think Stansell speaks to this a bit when she talks about how the "home visits" (and the resulting tracts) from the evangelical middle class were in large part about the self-definition of the middle class. -- Rebecca | ||
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| + | '''Interdependence''' When I read about the interdependence of the neighborhoods of these working class families, it seems like the author spent more time explaining the turmoil, fights, and sexual assaults of these neighbors than on on the interdependence they shared. The author therefore just continues the stereotype of the working poor as being immoral, unethical, and rowdy bunch of people. While reading about the filth and squalor of Little Five Points, I kept thinking of "Gangs of New York" and found the explanation of the Bowrey crowd interesting. It was if the working poor people were attempting to dress in a facade of Middle Class fancy clothing in an attempt to be like the Middle Class. ---Joyce M. | ||
