CAS HI 190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: American Notes, Puritans, Old World Rom
29 Aug 2016
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Introduction: the contingency and meanings of mass transit. By 1925, the us was a country of automobiles. Where just 25 years ago, a car was a novelty. Boston was leaving the world of horse-drawn carriages. Revealed by the development of the t, etc. An image of boston as a place of culture, old-fashion, history of puritans, emerson, not innovation. So the implementation of the subway upsetted this traditional image. The novelist henry james: american notes (1907) When he returned to boston, that was the boston he longed for, the boston he wanted to see. He longed for the old-world crookedness of boston . James had before disliked the un-civilizedness of the us, and liked the elegance of britain. He liked the crooked, windy streets, and the boston athenaeum for its culture. But he came back to grid-like streets, repulsive irish immigrants, overshadowed. By the early 1900s, the image of dame boston, as an athens of america, was almost gone.
