The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

The Other Bostonians challenges many myths and assumptions about the development of America. Newspapers and other familiar sources record the lives of only the prominent five percent of the population. Beyond these privileged few lie the millions who are born, live, and die unnoted by the chroniclers of their era. Now, with the assistance of computers and a team of researchers, Stephan Thernstrom has gone to the available records of these people, to the raw and uninterpreted data in old city directories, fading marriage license applications, and abandoned local tax records. He has assembled and analyzed this neglected body of evidence to provide one of the most thorough series of observations ever made on the patterns of migration and social mobility in a changing American community. “Thernstrom has written a superb book. It is the best and most ambitious analysis of social mobility yet to appear and will undoubtedly serves as a model for future studies.” – American Historical Review “The best piece of quantitative history yet published. It is destined to be a highly influential book.” – New York Times Book Review “This is an important book-indispensably important-for students of American social mobility.” – American Journal of Sociology