Stick ball, stoop sitting, pickle barrel colloquys: The neighborhood occupies a warm place in our cultural memory—a place that Kenneth A. Scherzer contends may have more to do with ideology and nostalgia than with historical accuracy. In this remarkably detailed analysis of neighborhood life in New York City between 1830 and 1875, Scherzer gives the neighborhood its due as a complex, richly textured social phenomenon and helps to clarify its role in the evolution of cities. After a critical examination of recent historical renderings of neighborhood life, Scherzer focuses on the ecological, symbolic, and social aspects of nineteenth-century community life in New York City. Employing a wide array of sources, from census reports and church records to police blotters and brothel guides, he documents the complex composition of neighborhoods that defy simple categorization by class or ethnicity. From his account, the New York City neighborhood emerges as a community in flux, born out of the chaos of May Day, the traditional moving day. The fluid geography and heterogeneity of these neighborhoods kept most city residents from developing strong local attachments. Scherzer shows how such weak spatial consciousness, along with the fast pace of residential change, diminished the community function of the neighborhood. New Yorkers, he suggests, relied instead upon the "unbounded community," a collection of friends and social relations that extended throughout the city. With pointed argument and weighty evidence, The Unbounded Community replaces the neighborhood of nostalgia with a broader, multifaceted conception of community life. Depicting the neighborhood in its full scope and diversity, the book will enhance future forays into urban history.

Established in 1812, New York City Mission Society is one of the nation's oldest private social services organizations. During its long history, Mission Society has established a reputation for innovative, needs-responsive programming. Its board, staff, and programs helped launch such well-known organizations as the Community Service Society and the Fresh Air Fund. Mission Society also developed New York City's first visiting nurse service, first branch libraries in communities of need, and first sleep-away camp for African American children. Today, it remains one of the most respected social service organizations in New York City, improving the quality of life for thousands of children and families each year. New York City Mission Society captures the richness of the organization's history and the spirit of charity that has defined its work since the beginning. The images and accompanying captions explore the various individuals, programs, and services that have distinguished Mission Society in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers for nearly two hundred years. Highlights include photographs of early Mission Society leaders such as William Earl Dodge and Lucy S. Bainbridge, President Harry S. Truman's 1948 letter congratulating the organization on its one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary, and vintage views of programs like the City Mission Cadet Corp and Camp Minisink.

From 1889 to 1918 the reports consist of the Report of the director and appendixes, which from 1893 include various bulletins issued by the library (Additions; Bibliography; History; Legislation; Library school; Public libraries) These, including the Report of the director, were each issued also separately.

This study examines how the rise of liberal and fundamentalist factions of American evangelicalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - a dispute usually assumed to be basically theological - appeared from the perspective of the ministers and congregations of New York City's Protestant churches. The rise of liberalism and fundamentalism cannot be understood apart from their interaction with the social and cultural forces of the changing modern city - and particularly, their interaction with the welter of reform movements the advent of modernity inaugurated, usually called progressivism.