Class, Culture, and Campaigns against Vice in Three American Cities, 1872- 1892

In the late-nineteenth century, anti-vice societies that attempted to eradicate obscenity, gambling, and other vices, werefounded, led, and supported by the upper classes ofBoston and New York but received virtually no supportfrom the upper class of Philadelphia. The literature on moral reform movements argues that such movements are instances of either cultural or status defense unrelated to class conflict, or that they defend strictly material class interests. I argue that the importance of culture in the reproduction of class positions implies that moral reform movements are a form of class politics. Variation in strength ofsupportfor the anti-vice movements is explained as a response to the political and social threat posed by the immigrant working class and mediated by cultural consensus within the upper class.