Daniel Czitrom – författare

On a Sunday morning in early 1892, Reverend Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst ascended to his pulpit at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York and delivered one of the most explosive sermons in the city's history. Municipal life, he charged, was morally corrupt. Vice was rampant. And the city's police force and its Tammany Hall politicians were"a lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and libidinous lot." Denounced by city and police officials as a self-righteous "blatherskite," Parkhurst resolved to prove his case. The bespectacled minister descended his pulpit and in disguise visited gin joints and brothels, taking notes and gathering evidence. Two years later, his findings forced the New York State Senate to investigate the New York Police Department. The Lexow Committee heard testimony from nearly 700 witnesses, who revealed in shocking--and headline-dominating--detail just how deeply the NYPD was involved in, and benefited from, the vice economy. Parkhurst's campaign had kick-started the Progressive Movement.New York Exposed offers a narrative history of the first major crusade to clean up Gotham. Daniel Czitrom does full justice to this spellbinding story by telling it within the larger contexts of national politics, poverty, patronage, vote fraud and vote suppression, and police violence. The effort to root out corrupt cops and crooked politicians morphed into something much more profound: a public reckoning over what New York--and the American city--had become since the Civil War. Animated by as vivid a cast as New York has ever produced, the book's key characters include Police Superintendent Thomas Byrnes and Inspector Alexander "Clubber" Williams, the nation's most famous cops, as well as anarchist revolutionary Emma Goldman, the zealous prosecutor John W. Goff, and an array of politicos, immigrant leaders, labor bosses, prostitutes, show-business entrepreneurs, counterfeiters, and reformers and muckrakers determined to change business as usual. New York Exposed offers an unforgettable portrait of a city in a truly transformative moment.

In an incendiary 1892 sermon given at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Charles Parkhurst declared New York's municipal life to be deplorable and corrupt, controlled by "polluted harpies feeding day and night on its quivering vitals." While city officials denounced him as a "blatherskite" and a "cowardly defamer," Parkhurst set about gathering a slew of evidence to present in a later series of sermons that captivated city residents and the press alike. Parkhurst believed that only a Christian revival, combined with a new, non-partisan approach to governing, could save New York. Disguised as an out of towner, he toured New York's underworld, gathering evidence which he presented in sermons. Two years later, his crusade led the state senate to found the Lexow Committee, whose comprehensive investigation (including testimonies from nearly 700 witnesses) revealed the dark underside of New York's vice economy and the police force's complicity in it, effectively launching the Progressive movement. Animated by a colorful cast of characters ranging from the bosses of Tammany Hall to prostitutes and counterfeiters, Daniel Czitrom offers a vivid account of a formative time when muckraking journalism and urban reform were just beginning to alter the American social and political landscape. As Czitrom reveals, the relationship between New York politics and the NYPD affected not only the life of the city, but of the nation as a whole.

Before publishing his pioneering book How the Other Half Lives - a photojournalistic investigation into the poverty of New York's tenement houses - Jacob Riis (1849-1914) spent his first years in the United States as an immigrant and itinerant laborer, barely surviving on his carpentry skills until he landed a job as a muckraking reporter. These early experiences provided Riis with an empathy for the lives of immigrants that would shine through in his iconic photos. With Rediscovering Jacob Riis, Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom place Jacob Riis' images in historical context. In the first half of their book, Czitrom explores Riis' reporting and activism within the gritty specifics of Gilded Age New York: its new immigrants, its political machines, its fiercely competitive journalism, its evangelical reformers, and its labor movement. Czitrom shows that though Riis argued for charity, not sociopolitical justice, the empathy that drove his work continues to inspire urban reformers today.In the second half of the book, Yochelson describes Riis' photographic practice: his initial reliance on amateur photographers to take the photographs he needed, his own use of the camera, and then his collecting of photographs by professionals documenting social reform efforts for government agencies and charities. She argues that while Riis is rightly considered a revolutionary in the history of photography, he was not a photographic artist. Instead, Riis was a writer and lecturer who first harnessed the power of photography to affect social change. As staggering inequality continues to be a hot political topic, this book, illustrated with nearly seventy of Riis' photographs, will serve as a stunning reminder of what has changed, and what has not.

Daniel Czitrom learned early on that radical politics was a family affair that stretched across generations and was shared around the kitchen table. In this historical memoir, Czitrom explores how memories and political beliefs shaped his life and his identity as a historian.Czitrom follows three generations of his family as they fled violence in Eastern Europe, built new lives in America, and committed themselves to radical political movements. Their works and trials included union organizing, volunteering to fight fascism in Spain and elsewhere, harassment by the FBI, and everyday acts of survival. Czitrom describes what he discovered in his years of historical detective work while pondering the still-unanswered questions wrapped in silence and pain. He also recounts his years-long journey to balance loyalty to his family's values with a desire to succeed, question authority, and become his own person.An engaging blend of memoir and history, Kitchen Table History is the chronicle of a family and a personal search for the meaning of the past.

Daniel Czitrom learned early on that radical politics was a family affair that stretched across generations and was shared around the kitchen table. In this historical memoir, Czitrom explores how memories and political beliefs shaped his life and his identity as a historian. Czitrom follows three generations of his family as they fled violence in Eastern Europe, built new lives in America, and committed themselves to radical political movements. Their works and trials included union organizing, volunteering to fight fascism in Spain and elsewhere, harassment by the FBI, and everyday acts of survival. Czitrom describes what he discovered in his years of historical detective work while pondering the still-unanswered questions wrapped in silence and pain. He also recounts his years-long journey to balance loyalty to his family's values with a desire to succeed, question authority, and become his own person. An engaging blend of memoir and history, Kitchen Table History is the chronicle of a family and a personal search for the meaning of the past.

For the two-semester U.S. history survey course. Offers students insight into how diverse communities and different regions have shaped America's past. Out of Many reveals the ethnic, geographical and economic diversity of the United States by examining the individual, the community and the state and placing a special focus on the country's regions, particularly the West. Each chapter helps students understand the textured and varied history that has produced the increasing complexity of America.

For the two-semester U.S. history survey course. Offers students insight into how diverse communities and different regions have shaped America's past. Out of Many reveals the ethnic, geographical and economic diversity of the United States by examining the individual, the community and the state and placing a special focus on the country's regions, particularly the West. Each chapter helps students understand the textured and varied history that has produced the increasing complexity of America.