ABSTRACT
New York City epitomized the urban crisis. City government, as Lord Bryce observed, was America's most conspicuous failure, and great diversity of reform groups arose to correct it. In fact, these ambitious urban progressives early in the twentieth century came to shape much of the state and even national reforms in such areas as child labor, tenement and factory legislation, and public utility regulation. Therefore, analysis of components of reform in New York City illuminates the broader process during the progressive era. In order to avoid priori judgments of who was or was not a progressive, this analysis begins not with men but with the reform issues themselves. These fell into three general clusters. One group centered around modifications in the framework and administration of New York City's government. A second group of issues focus on expansion and regulation of city's economic facilities. A third group concerns the quality of individual life in the urban environment, particularly the disadvantaged individual.
