The Great Rent Wars: New York, 1917-1929
Robert M. Fogelson
Abstract
This book tells the fascinating but little-known story of the battles between landlords and tenants in the United State’s largest city, from 1917 through 1929. These conflicts were triggered by the post-war housing shortage, which prompted landlords to raise rents, drove tenants to go on rent strikes, and spurred the state legislature, a conservative body dominated by upstate Republicans, to impose rent control in New York, a radical and unprecedented step that transformed landlord-tenant relations. The book traces the tumultuous history of rent control in New York from its inception to its ex ... More
This book tells the fascinating but little-known story of the battles between landlords and tenants in the United State’s largest city, from 1917 through 1929. These conflicts were triggered by the post-war housing shortage, which prompted landlords to raise rents, drove tenants to go on rent strikes, and spurred the state legislature, a conservative body dominated by upstate Republicans, to impose rent control in New York, a radical and unprecedented step that transformed landlord-tenant relations. The book traces the tumultuous history of rent control in New York from its inception to its expiration as it unfolded in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C. At the heart of this story are such memorable figures as Al Smith, Fiorello H. La Guardia, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as a host of tenants, landlords, judges, and politicians who have long been forgotten. The book also explores the heated debates over landlord-tenant law, housing policy, and other issues that are as controversial today as they were a century ago.
Keywords:
landlords,
tenants,
post-war housing shortage,
rents,
rent strikes,
Republicans,
New York,
landlord-tenant relations,
rent control,
housing policy
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300191721 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2014 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300191721.001.0001 |
