I believe that it is human nature to not want to read what yuo are forced to read. And i was assigned to read this in my HST301 class at oakland university. But goodness, Mr. Sam Bass Warner is interested in things that I am flat out not interested in. My teacher, for some reason, is just fascinated with the idea of privatism, however all it is is saying capitalism in a different way. I'm sorry I just don't care when Philadelphia put in waterworks and who were great contributors to the city. . .oh well

This book was required reading for a class I took on Urban History. It spoke of three phrases of development of Philadelphia. Bass referred to privatism as driving the city. The section I liked most was the middle section because he spoke of the philanthropic nature of many of the city's leaders. The final section was depressing simply because it pointed out the failures of the city and explained that people seemed to lose cite of community.