Explores the links between the urban reforms of the Progressive era and the long efforts of prior generations to tame the cities. Boyer integrates the ideologies of urban crusades with an examination of the careers and mentalities of a group of vigorous activists.

For over a century, dark visions of moral collapse and social disintegration in American cities spurred an anxious middle class to search for ways to restore order. In this critically acclaimed book, Paul Boyer explores the links between the urban reforms of the Progressive era and the long efforts of prior generations to tame the cities. He integrates the ideologies of urban crusades with an examination of the careers and the mentalities of a group of vigorous activists.

Part 1 The Jacksonian era: the urban threat emerges - a strategy takes shape
the trace societies - transmitting a traditional morality by untraditional means
the Sunday school in the city - patterned order in a disorderly setting
urban moral reform in the early republic - some concluding reflections. Part 2 The mid-century decades - years of frustration and innovation: heightened concern, varied responses
narrowing the problem - slum dwellers and street urchins
young men and the city - the emergence of the YMCA. Part 3 The gilded age - urban moral control in a turbulent time: "The Ragged Edge of Anarchy" - the emotional context of urban social control in the gilded age
American Protestantism and the moral challenge of the industrial city
building character among the urban poor - the charity organization movement
the urban moral awakening of the 1890s
the two faces of urban moral reform in the 1890s. Part 4 The progressives and the city - common concerns, divergent strategies: battling the saloon and the brothel - the great coercive crusades
one last, decisive struggle - the symbolic component of the great coercive crusades
positive environmentalism - the ideological underpinnings
housing, parks, and playgrounds - positive environmentalism in action
the civic ideal and the urban moral order
the civic ideal made real - the moral vision of the progressive city planners
positive environmentalism and the urban moral-control tradition - contrasts and continuities
getting right with Gesellschaft - the decay of the urban moral-control impulse in the 1920s and after.