PULLMAN: An Experiment in Industrial Order and Community Planning 1880-1930

by Stanley Buder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 1967

The great Pullman strike of 1894 looms large in U.S. labor history, but this is its first complete history, beginning with the man who made the ""model town"" for the workers who made the ""sleeping car."" The man, the town, the car, all were George Pullman, the model of a self-made, paternalistic, 19th century businessman. Horatio Alger could not have improved on his story or his morals. Pullman built his town, outside Chicago, to demonstrate that the utilitarian and the aesthetic could be satisfactorily synthesized. He owned it and he ran it to keep his employees industrious and to make a profit. While its failure was inevitable it is worth examining it in some detail since some of the problems of control and order through urban-industrial planning which stand out so starkly here are still very relevant. Pullman was the classic experiment in efficiency achieved at the expense of democratic values, and Mr. Buder has meticulously included every obtainable scrap of material on it.

Pub Date: Nov. 2, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION