Robert M. Fogelson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300191721
- eISBN:
- 9780300205589
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300191721.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book tells the fascinating but little-known story of the battles between landlords and tenants in the United State’s largest city, from 1917 through 1929. These conflicts were triggered by the ...
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This book tells the fascinating but little-known story of the battles between landlords and tenants in the United State’s largest city, from 1917 through 1929. These conflicts were triggered by the post-war housing shortage, which prompted landlords to raise rents, drove tenants to go on rent strikes, and spurred the state legislature, a conservative body dominated by upstate Republicans, to impose rent control in New York, a radical and unprecedented step that transformed landlord-tenant relations. The book traces the tumultuous history of rent control in New York from its inception to its expiration as it unfolded in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C. At the heart of this story are such memorable figures as Al Smith, Fiorello H. La Guardia, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as a host of tenants, landlords, judges, and politicians who have long been forgotten. The book also explores the heated debates over landlord-tenant law, housing policy, and other issues that are as controversial today as they were a century ago.Less
This book tells the fascinating but little-known story of the battles between landlords and tenants in the United State’s largest city, from 1917 through 1929. These conflicts were triggered by the post-war housing shortage, which prompted landlords to raise rents, drove tenants to go on rent strikes, and spurred the state legislature, a conservative body dominated by upstate Republicans, to impose rent control in New York, a radical and unprecedented step that transformed landlord-tenant relations. The book traces the tumultuous history of rent control in New York from its inception to its expiration as it unfolded in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C. At the heart of this story are such memorable figures as Al Smith, Fiorello H. La Guardia, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as a host of tenants, landlords, judges, and politicians who have long been forgotten. The book also explores the heated debates over landlord-tenant law, housing policy, and other issues that are as controversial today as they were a century ago.
Ida Susser
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195367317
- eISBN:
- 9780199951192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367317.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter examines the problems and attitudes which welfare regulations generated among clients. Bureaucratic delay, combined with stringent regulations, shaped the behavior of clients. Such ...
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This chapter examines the problems and attitudes which welfare regulations generated among clients. Bureaucratic delay, combined with stringent regulations, shaped the behavior of clients. Such influences were not always in the direction intended by the regulations. The conjunction of regulations for welfare assistance with the varied and complicated lives of recipients led to a system which did not correspond either to the explicit requirements of the New York State Department of Social Services or to the needs of poor people. This lack of correspondence contributed to the sense of fear and insecurity among low-income working-class people which was fostered both by the uncertain employment situation and by landlord-tenant relations. Each of these situations affected the development and effectiveness of efforts toward political articulation.Less
This chapter examines the problems and attitudes which welfare regulations generated among clients. Bureaucratic delay, combined with stringent regulations, shaped the behavior of clients. Such influences were not always in the direction intended by the regulations. The conjunction of regulations for welfare assistance with the varied and complicated lives of recipients led to a system which did not correspond either to the explicit requirements of the New York State Department of Social Services or to the needs of poor people. This lack of correspondence contributed to the sense of fear and insecurity among low-income working-class people which was fostered both by the uncertain employment situation and by landlord-tenant relations. Each of these situations affected the development and effectiveness of efforts toward political articulation.
W. E. VAUGHAN
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203568
- eISBN:
- 9780191675867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203568.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The danger of a combination among the tenants and possibly a rent strike was obviously an obstacle to general increases over a whole estate. Sporadic increases, therefore, had at least the advantage ...
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The danger of a combination among the tenants and possibly a rent strike was obviously an obstacle to general increases over a whole estate. Sporadic increases, therefore, had at least the advantage of not generating widespread opposition. The experience of William Wann on the Gosford and Dungannon Royal School estates shows that increasing rents required diplomacy, good timing, and determination. In theory, the landlord had powerful weapons in his arsenal, but the tenants were not defenceless, and the position of the two parties was more evenly balanced than their purely legal relationship would suggest. Certainly, the argument that higher rents would have encouraged more intensive farming was as sound as its opposite, that security of tenure and compensation for improvements would have increased output. This unobtrusive aspect of rents, ignored by many contemporaries who were obsessed with rackrenting, was profoundly and pervasively important in landlord-tenant relations in Ireland.Less
The danger of a combination among the tenants and possibly a rent strike was obviously an obstacle to general increases over a whole estate. Sporadic increases, therefore, had at least the advantage of not generating widespread opposition. The experience of William Wann on the Gosford and Dungannon Royal School estates shows that increasing rents required diplomacy, good timing, and determination. In theory, the landlord had powerful weapons in his arsenal, but the tenants were not defenceless, and the position of the two parties was more evenly balanced than their purely legal relationship would suggest. Certainly, the argument that higher rents would have encouraged more intensive farming was as sound as its opposite, that security of tenure and compensation for improvements would have increased output. This unobtrusive aspect of rents, ignored by many contemporaries who were obsessed with rackrenting, was profoundly and pervasively important in landlord-tenant relations in Ireland.
W. E. VAUGHAN
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203568
- eISBN:
- 9780191675867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203568.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In Ireland, landlords were greatly outnumbered by tenants. It was unlikely that landlords could mobilize more than 20,000 able-bodied followers to confront well over half a million tenants. Not only ...
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In Ireland, landlords were greatly outnumbered by tenants. It was unlikely that landlords could mobilize more than 20,000 able-bodied followers to confront well over half a million tenants. Not only were landlords numerically weak, but they suffered from weaknesses that made them vulnerable to tenants' resistance. The tenants, on the other hand, were numerous, they knew each other, and they had much in common. Their ability to organize themselves, to find what Bishop Nulty called ‘principles of aggregation’, was crucial to the history of landlord-tenant relations. The development of a trade union among them would have greatly modified the management of estates even without the land acts of 1870 and 1881. Organized resistance, both legal and illegal, between 1879 and 1882 played an important part in changing landlordism.Less
In Ireland, landlords were greatly outnumbered by tenants. It was unlikely that landlords could mobilize more than 20,000 able-bodied followers to confront well over half a million tenants. Not only were landlords numerically weak, but they suffered from weaknesses that made them vulnerable to tenants' resistance. The tenants, on the other hand, were numerous, they knew each other, and they had much in common. Their ability to organize themselves, to find what Bishop Nulty called ‘principles of aggregation’, was crucial to the history of landlord-tenant relations. The development of a trade union among them would have greatly modified the management of estates even without the land acts of 1870 and 1881. Organized resistance, both legal and illegal, between 1879 and 1882 played an important part in changing landlordism.
