Hell's Kitchen and the battle for urban space: class struggle and progressive reform in New York City, 1894-1914

Hell's Kitchen is among Manhattan's most storied and studied neighborhoods.

A working-class district situated next to the West Side's middle- and upper-class residential districts, it has long attracted the focus of artists and urban planners, writers and reformers.

Now, Joseph Varga takes us on a tour of Hell's Kitchen with an eye toward what we usually take for granted: space, and, particularly, how urban spaces are produced, controlled, and contested by different class and political forces.