Publisher Description

What does community mean, exactly? In this inter-disciplinary study, Elizabeth Ann Duclos-Orsello takes seriously the concept of community as an object of historical analysis.

Focusing on St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1900 to 1920, Modern Bonds explores the diverse ways that its people renegotiated private and public affiliations during a period of modernization. The book examines a wide range of subjects and materials, including photographs from an African American family, fictional depictions of middle-class women, built environments that created enclaves of immigrants, and public festivals designed to unite all citizens. As Duclos-Orsello demonstrates, it was in this period that a complex set of activities, policies, and practices led to new understandings of community that continue to shape life today.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Ann Duclos-Orsello is professor and chair of interdisciplinary studies and coordinator of American studies at Salem State University.

Review

"Modern Bonds shows that modern literary and cultural history can have a large claim on our understanding of 'community.' Using a rich, interdisciplinary archive of literature, material culture, and civic records from early twentieth century, Duclos-Orsello deftly intervenes in the sociological literature of community building and in the process, rewrites our timelines of tradition, modernity, and urbanization. Modern Bonds is not the story of modern alienation. The St. Paul that Duclos-Orsello recovers is testimony to the irresistible pull of civic life--and an object lesson in how literary scholarship and cultural history can operative effectively in civic life today."--Robert Fanuzzi, author of Abolition's Public Sphere "Modern Bonds is the product of prodigious research. Through an innovative use of literature, photography, architecture, and landscape planning, Duclos-Orsello offers a sophisticated exploration of how the concept of community was redefined in the early twentieth century. It is an imaginative, convincing, and important book."--Jon C. Teaford, author of Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest and The Metropolitan Revolution: The Rise of Post-Urban America "Duclos-Orsello impresses the reader with her ability to analyze a wide range of sources, creating a transformational interdisciplinary work that takes on familiar topics in new ways and brings new perspectives to old debates about the meaning of community."--Catherine McNicol Stock, author of Main Street in Crisis: The Great Depression and the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains "Modern Bonds is a feat of American Studies scholarship that revitalizes community studies and intellectual inquiry into the Midwest . . . Animated by ground-level detail, this text is suited for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on urban history, researchers interested in rescuing local histories from the trope of the modern loss of community, and practitioners concerned about planning for heterogeneous populations."--CHOICE "The book is an accessible, engaging read for a wide audience, while also appealing to academics, who will appreciate the scholarly rigor. Modern Bonds is a welcome addition to research on the urban history of Minnesota's very ordinary, endearing state capital."--Minnesota History "By detailing the realignment of social ties in the early decades of the twentieth century, [Duclos-Orsello] offers a longer historical view than other contemporary sociological studies, which argue that the fracturing of communal ties is a recent occurrence."--Journal of American History "[O]ne can only wish that Modern Bonds becomes a standard reference in the study of urban communal spaces. The book combines excellent historical analysis and narrative mastery. Quite thought-provokingly, Duclos-Orsello challenges traditional approaches to the concept of community and offers a compelling discussion of the history of St. Paul and the American nation in the early twentieth century."--European Journal of American Studies

Review Quote

The book is an accessible, engaging read for a wide audience, while also appealing to academics, who will appreciate the scholarly rigor. Modern Bonds is a welcome addition to research on the urban history of Minnesota's very ordinary, endearing state capital.

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