Studies of Urban Conditions by Contemporary Observers

Read Borchert's preface, chapters 1-3 and appendix A, and answer these questions:

1) What is the purpose of Borchert's study? What is Borchert's thesis?

2) What are his major primary sources?

3) According to Borchert, what are the problems and biases in some of these sources? Why does he consider the sources to be useful anyway? (You'll need to read Appendix A to answer this question)

4) From what you can see so far, how well does Borchert handle source material produced by middle-class observers of alley life? Does he adequately overcome the limitations of this material? Does his analysis seem to be skewed by any biases and preconceptions of his own?

In addition to Borchert, read one of the following and answer both of the questions below:

A) The introduction and any additional chapter from Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890) [http://www.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html]

OR....

B) Ezra R. Pulling, "Report of the Fourth Sanitary Inspection District" (ca. 1865) [http://vm.uconn.edu/~pbaldwin/hygiene.html]

1) How is the author's description of slum conditions influenced by his own value judgments?

2) Despite its limitations, how could this source be helpful to an historian of everyday life?