Making the “American Acropolis”: On Verticality, Social Hierarchy, and the Obduracy of Manhattan Schist

Steven Gregory

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2020, vol. 110, issue 1, 78-97

Abstract: This article examines the development of the American Acropolis, a constellation of religious, cultural, and educational institutions in Morningside Heights, New York City. I argue that, beginning in the 1880s, the elites governing these institutions took advantage of geography—specifically, the area’s elevation as a plateau—and their control over the built environment to achieve vertical secession, physically and symbolically, from nearby working-class communities and their associated industries. Over the longue durée, these elites viewed social secession to be conducive to, if not the necessary condition for, cultivating the arts of civilization. I examine the ensuing politics of verticality that accompanied this secession, pitting the institutions of the Acropolis against sectors of the real estate industry, railroad companies, and the ethnically and racially marked populations of neighboring working-class communities. Key Words: American Acropolis, materiality, Morningside Heights, politics of verticality, social hierarchy, social secession.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24694452.2019.1625746 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:110:y:2020:i:1:p:78-97

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/raag21

DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2019.1625746

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of the American Association of Geographers is currently edited by Jennifer Cassidento

More articles in Annals of the American Association of Geographers from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().