Voices Of The Public: American Civil Society And Public Spaces At The Turn Of The 20^th Century

The very turn of the 20^th century is the important turning point in Americanhistory.Along with the swift and violent development of the industrialization,America has entered into the era of rapid urbanization,and series of social problemsin cities come forth subsequently.Because of the commonality and opening of theurban public spaces,they were the places which exhibited most amounts of urbanproblems and the spheres which embodied mostly the relations among the State,Civilsociety and Individual.With the subject of American civil society and urban publicspaces,this article reappears the"voices of the public"at the turn of the 20^th century,analyzing in detail the central topic of the cleanup and reform to the American urbanpublic spaces during this period,eventually unscrambling the major idea of"cities andcitizens".From the view of the urban public spaces,we can discover the facts that themasses uttered the voices of complain and dissatisfaction when they encountered theawful institutions of the urban public spaces during American rapid urbanization stage.Since the last decade of nineteenth century,citizens---the masses who come throughcivilization---had eventually awakened under the direction of middle class,all of themthen uttered the voice of reform altogether.At the same time,with the rise ofnationalism or nationalization,individualism had gradually replaced by collectivism,so the pursuing to freedom had always been.In the meaning of politic and culture,thetheme of individual freedom was one of the important subject in the cities as before inthe cultural cycle at the turn of the 20^th century.What's more,these three voices notonly reflected the historical facts of American urbanization,but also revealed therelation among the different groups in the urban public spaces and the relationshipamong the State,Civil society and Individual.At the turn of the 20^th century,the history of the cleanup and reform to publicspaces in American cities such as New York,Chicago,Cleveland,San Francisco,LosAngels,Denver,and St.Louis have indicated that this social movement had universalmeaning.We also can find this universality from the general value andideology---such as Beaux Arts,Baroque style,Neoclassicism,and the concept of culture and value of Victorian era---in the cities of mostly capital countries.Indeed,such was the case with the United States that at all time it could produce characteristicoutcome by means of those ideas and techniques.In this article these outcomes arepresented as"the public"represented via three sorts of voices;and the unique politic,mode of culture and ethos of democracy demonstrated in the cleanup and reform tothe public spaces in the United States at the turn of the 20^th century.With the narratives on the cleanup and reform to American public spaces at theturn of the 20^th century,the intention of this article is to research into the evolution ofAmerican civil society and public spaces,and their relation,thereby to turn up thequestions that how the complicated social relationship has transformed,as well ashow the cultural capital and political resource has alternated.Thus the expatiation ofthis intention is an attempt that shows more or less originality.Actually,this article isbased on the analytic frame of"cities and citizens"by way of a paradigm of"culturalturn"in urban study,which is in order to enrich the relative discusses and studies ofthe correlative subjects,also to provide a analytic view and path to discuss and studythese correlative subjects.What's more,the experience and lessons as showed in thisarticle that the United States have obtained at the turn of the 20^th century,obviouslycan use for reference or elicitation for those countries especially developing countrieswhich now have come into the stage of rapid urbanization.