Skip to Main Content

The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn: An American Story

Online ISBN:
9781501765520
Print ISBN:
9781501765513
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn: An American Story

Stuart M. Blumin,
Stuart M. Blumin
Cornell University (emeritus)
Find on
Glenn C. Altschuler
Glenn C. Altschuler
Cornell University
Find on
Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
15 September 2022
Online ISBN:
9781501765520
Print ISBN:
9781501765513
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

This book tells the story of nineteenth-century Brooklyn's domination by upper- and middle-class Protestants with roots in Puritan New England. This lively history describes the unraveling of the control they wielded as more ethnically diverse groups moved into the “City of Churches” during the twentieth century. Before it became a prime American example of urban ethnic diversity, Brooklyn was a lovely and salubrious “town across the river” from Manhattan, celebrated for its churches and upright suburban living. But challenges to this way of life issued from the sheer growth of the city, from new secular institutions—department stores, theaters, professional baseball—and from the licit and illicit attractions of Coney Island, all of which were at odds with post-Puritan piety and behavior. Despite these developments, the Yankee–Protestant hegemony largely held until the massive influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants in the twentieth century. As the book demonstrates, in their churches, synagogues, and other communal institutions, and on their neighborhood streets, the new Brooklynites established the ethnic mosaic that laid the groundwork for the theory of cultural pluralism, giving it a central place within the American Creed.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close