How do we draw the lines between ""good"" and ""bad"" neighbourhoods? How do we know'ghettos'? Using Ogden, Utah, as a case study, Pepper Glass argues that urban reputations are "moral frontiers" that uphold and create divides between who is a good and respectable - or a bad and vilified - member of a community.

"Certain cities in the United States have long had reputations attached to them that in one way or another are as deserved as they are unwarranted ... The process by which a city comes into a reputation is a long and complicated one. In [this book], Pepper Glass looks for the origins and tracks the development of Ogden, Utah's, reputation as an undesirable, or at least less desirable, place to live in Utah, or what Glass calls 'the American Holy Land.' Glass's purpose is to study the cultural processes that create and maintain reputations of place, using Ogden as a case study"--Publisher marketing.