Poverty and Progress : Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City, by Stephan Thernstrom.

1. How was the central cultural theme of the promise of social mobility manifested in America around the 1800’s?
    

    
    
    
    
    
    

2. How did the function of the ideology of mobility supply the citizens of 19^th century America with a scheme for comprehending and accommodating themselves to a new social and economic order?
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

3. How did the passionate intensity of 19^th century mobility ideology play a strategic role in the evolution of American social attitudes?
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

4. In which ways were the ideology of mobility in America radically different form the Old World?
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

5. How did the doctrine of the "open race" sanction sharp differences in wealth and social status?
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

6. In what two traits did the secret of success lay?

   
   A)

   B)

7. The central injunction of the mobility creed to the working man was what advice?
    

    

8. What was the explanation for people being poor?
    

    

9. List and explain the two answers of what constituted success.

   
   A)
    
    
    
    

   B)
    
    
    
    

10. Why does the story of "local boy make good" hold in central place in the ideology of mobility?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

11. Why was the fluid social structure of Newburyport considered the quanantee of stability and prosperity?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

12. What were some of the aspects of a more humane interpretation of mobility ideology in attitudes toward the problem of poverty?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

13. What was the "just deserts" theory of poverty?
     

     

14. What two sets of conditions were necessary for genuine equal opportunities for all people?

    
    A)
     
     

    B)
     
     

15. What did reformers in mid century Newburyport feel was the most important agency of improvement?
     

     
     

    B) Why?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

16. Explain the distinction between intra – generational and inter – generational mobility.
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

17. What occupational class in Newburyport was in the lowest social stratum?
18. Why do the terms social status and social class raise complex and disputed problems of definition?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

19. The most common form of mobility experienced by the ordinary laborers of 19^th century Newburyport was-
20. What two chief social trends of 19^th century America appear in Newburyport?

    
    A)

    B)
     

21. What are some of the reasons that would explain why a laborer would migrate from Newburyport?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

22. Why would it be highly unlikely for the geographic mobility of these laborers to have any effect on their opportunities for upward social mobility?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

23. Why is migration a selective process?

 
 
 
 
24. Thernstrom defines occupational mobility as a move form one to another of what four broad categories?
     

     
     
     
     

25. Why is the superior ranking of non-manual occupations incontestable?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

26. What types of occupations were at the top of the manual-laboring group?
     

     

27. Why was the common laborer at the mercy of the harsh uncertainties of the casual labor market?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

28. What three criteria would distinguish a semi skilled job from an unskilled job?

    
    A)
     

    B)

    C)

29. How does a community’s occupational structure determine the range of occupational mobility opportunities available?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

30. Were there any changes in the main outlines of the Newburyport occupational structure between 1850 and 1880?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

31. How is the rate of persistence of a group for a particular decade defined?
     

     
     
     
     

32. From 1850 – 1860 upward mobility was restricted almost entirely to what two occupational categories?

            A)                                                                    B)

 

33. Why were occupational opportunities for the immigrants form rural New England and abroad who arrived in Newburyport after 1850 less favorable?
     

     
     
     
     

34. Did Yankee workmen climb into higher status occupations more easily than immigrant laborers in the period from 1850 – 1880?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

35. How was the shrinking of opportunities in the semi skilled occupations intimately connected with the changing ethnic composition of the Newburyport laboring class?
     

     
     
    
    
    
    
    

    General Conclusions About the Mobility Patterns of Common Laborers in Newburyport in the 1850 – 1880 Period
     
     

36. What evidence shows the community’s unskilled laboring force to be extremely fluid?
     

     
     
     
     

37. What evidence shows that variations in the occupational opportunities was not closely related to variations in the flow of migrants from the city?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

38. What evidence shows that a common workman who remained in Newburyport during these years had only a slight chance of rising into a middle class occupation?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

39. Were politics or religion important channels for immigrant upward mobility in Newburyport?

    
    B) Why?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

40. What evidence shows the lack of opportunity for laborers to enter skilled manual occupations?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

41. The opportunity for the laborer to take the modest step upward into the semi skilled category varied in what two significant ways?

    
    A)

    B)

42. What is the difference in computing intra – generational mobility and inter – generational mobility?
     

     
     
     
     

43. What evidence suggests that laborers sons did not inherit the occupation of their fathers?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

44. Although a certain number of laborers sons gained a foothold in the white-collar world after 1860 what type of occupation was a more important source of upward mobility?
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

45. What effect do the role of ethnic differences and the influence of geographic mobility have on the process of inter – generational mobility?

    
    A) Role of ethnic differences -
     
     
     
     

    B) Influence of geographic mobility -
     
     
     
     
     
     

46. List the six main conclusions of the career patterns of Newburyport laborers and their sons in the 1850 – 1880 period