Political economy of urban provisioning. Is access to food a public good? From public market to free-market system, 1790-1860 -- Public market system of provisioning, 1790s-1820s. The landscape of municipal food access ; Constraints of time: public market schedule of provisioning ; Catharine Market and its neighborhood -- Free-market system of provisioning, 1830s-50s. Withdraw the bungling hand of goverment: free-market geography of provisioning ; The price of deregulation: food access and living standards
Summary
"New York City witnessed unparalleled growth in the first half of the nineteenth century, its population rising from thirty thousand people to nearly a million in a matter of decades. Feeding Gotham looks at how America's first metropolis grappled with the challenge of provisioning its inhabitants. It tells the story of how access to food, once a public good, became a private matter left to free and unregulated markets--and of the profound consequences this had for American living standards and urban development."--Dust jacket front flap