Tracing the evolution of Atlantic City from a miserable hamlet of
fishermen's huts in 1854 to the nation's premier seaside resort in 1910,
The Social Anxieties of Progressive Reform chronicles a bizarre
political conflict that reaches to the very heart of Progressivism.
Operating outside of the traditional constraints of family, church, and
community, commercial recreation touched the rawest nerves of the reform
impulse. The sight of young men and women frolicking in the surf and
tangoing on the beach and the presence of unescorted women in boardwalk
cafs and cabarets translated for many Progressives, secular and
evangelical alike, into a wholesale rejection of socio-sexual restraints
and portended disaster for the American family. While some viewed
Atlantic City as a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, others considered the
resort the triumph of American democracy and a healthy and innocent
release from the drudgery and regimentation of industrial society.
These conflicting currents resulted in a policy of strategic censorship
that evolved in stages during the formative years of the city. Sunday
drinking, gambling, and prostitution were permitted, albeit under
increasingly stringent controls, but resort amusements were
significantly restricted and shut down entirely on Sunday.
This policy also segregated blacks from the beach and the boardwalk. By
1890, more than one in five residents of Atlantic City was black, a
uniquely high ratio among northern cities. While the urban economies of
the north depended on immigrant labor, the resort economy of Atlantic
City rested on legions of black cooks, waiters, bellmen, and domestic
workers. Paulsson's description of African-American life in Atlantic
City provides a vivid and comprehensive picture of life in the North
during the decades following the Civil War.
Paulsson's work, and his focus on changing social values and growing
racial tensions, brings to light an ongoing crisis in American society,
namely the chasm between religion and mass culture as embodied by the
indifference to the sanctity of the Sabbath. In Atlantic City, churches
mounted a nationwide effort to preserve the Christian Sunday, a movement
that grew steadily after the Civil War. Paullson's account of modern
Sabbatarianism provides fresh insights into the nature of evangelical
reform and its relationship to the Progressive movement.
Filled with over forty delightful historical photographs that vividly
depict the evolution of the resort's architecture, political scene, and
even swimwear, The Social Anxieties of Progressive Reform is must
reading for anyone interested in American mass culture, Progressivism,
and reform movements. Paulsson has illustrated the story with over forty
delightful historical photographs that vividly depict the evolution of
the resort's architecture, political scene, and even swimwear.
