The Evolution of American Urban Society

by Chudacoff, Howard P.; Smith, Judith E.

• ISBN13: 9780131898240
• ISBN10: 0131898248
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

In over three centuries of growth and change, American cities have exerted forces that have been both centrifugal-pulling people, resources, and interest toward them-and centripetal-sending out goods, services, and ideas. The story of how these forces evolved over time encompasses almost every aspect of American history. Always cognizant of change over time, this book explores the ways that urban development influenced people's lives and on the ways people shaped the urban environment. A city is simultaneously a social, economic, and political entity, and Howard P. Chudacoff and Judith E. Smith have taken care to examine each of these dimensions of urban life. Their focus is on urban society: its institutions, its activities, and, especially, its people. The authors address questions such as: bull; bull;Why do people go to the city? bull;What do they find there? bull;How do they cope? bull;What do they contribute? bull;How are they rewarded? In this, the Sixth Edition, Chudacoff and Smith pay particular attention to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, the built environment, regional differentials, and emerging cultural forms such as rock and rap music. New material has been added on the environmental impact of cities and suburbs and on the new racial and ethnic mix produced by the most recent immigration trends. In addition, the final chapter has been expanded to take into account issues relating to the presidential administration of George W. Bush and to the consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Urban America in the Colonial Age, 1600-1776	p. 1
Urban Beginnings	p. 1
Problems of Growth	p. 10
The Social Mosaic	p. 16
Cities in the American Revolution	p. 27
Bibliography	p. 35
Notes	p. 36
Commercialization and Urban Expansion in the New Nation, 1776-1860	p. 37
The Commercial Revolution	p. 37
Westward Expansion	p. 40
Beginnings of Urban Industrialism	p. 45
Societal Effects of Economic Change	p. 47
Servicing the City	p. 52
Bibliography	p. 61
Notes	p. 62
Life in the Walking City, 1820-1860	p. 63
The Walking City	p. 63
Social Complexity and Contested Terrain	p. 67
Cities and the Civil War	p. 78
Bibliography	p. 81
Notes	p. 83
Industrialization and the Transformation of Urban Space, 1850-1920	p. 84
The Growth of Mass Transit	p. 84
Spatial Segregation and the Beginning of Urban Sprawl	p. 92
The Quickening Pace of Industrialization	p. 108
Bibliography	p. 113
Notes	p. 114
Newcomers and the Urban Core, 1850-1920	p. 115
Migration, Old and New	p. 115
Housing and Health	p. 126
Coping with Inner-City Life	p. 133
Patterns of Social Mobility	p. 142
Bibliography	p. 149
Notes	p. 151
City Politics in the Era of Transformation	p. 152
Origins of the Machine	p. 152
Structure and Functions of the Machine	p. 154
Some Notable Cases	p. 158
City Governance and Municipal Reform	p. 166
Goals and Tactics of Municipal Reform	p. 168
Bibliography	p. 174
Refashioning the Social and Physical Environment	p. 176
Impulses of Social Reform	p. 176
Remedies of Social Reformers	p. 180
Planning and Engineering the City	p. 191
Reform Becomes Progressivism	p. 195
The Rise of Urban Liberalism	p. 198
Bibliography	p. 201
Notes	p. 202
Cities in an Age of Metropolitanism: The 1920s and 1930s	p. 203
New Urban Growth	p. 203
Suburbanization and Metropolitanism	p. 208
Cities and Consumer Culture	p. 215
Cities as a Cultural Battleground	p. 219
Urban Politics in the 1920s	p. 227
The Great Depression	p. 228
Political and Social Life in the 1930s	p. 240
Bibliography	p. 246
Notes	p. 248
The Politics of Growth in the Era of Suburbanization, 1941-1974	p. 249
The Impact of World War II on Cities	p. 249
Spatial Patterns of Postwar Growth	p. 253
Reshaping Downtown: Progrowth Coalitions, Urban Renewal, and Their Consequences	p. 259
Currents of Protest	p. 265
New Political Alignments	p. 272
New Suburban Realignments	p. 274
Signposts of Change	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 280
Notes	p. 282
The Fate of the Modern American City	p. 283
Fiscal Crisis and the Uncertainty of Federal Urban Policy	p. 284
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Neglect as a Panacea	p. 288
The Clinton Years: Further Neglect	p. 293
The Social Costs of Widening Income Inequality and Urban Neglect	p. 296
New Urban Neighbors	p. 298
Edge City and Inner City	p. 302
Into the Twenty-First Century	p. 306
Bibliography	p. 310
Note	p. 311
Photo Credits	p. 312
Index	p. 314
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Since 1975, whenThe Evolution of American Urban Societywas first published, American cities and the scholarship about the history of American cities have undergone consequential changes. Yet at the same time, there have been vital consistencies in both urban life and the scholarly focus on how American urban society has evolved. Throughout almost three decades, the authors of this book have maintained their focus on the social history of urban life, with special attention to the unfolding political and economic processes that have shaped the development of cities and the lives of urban dwellers. Equally important have been the ways that the actions of urban dwellers--the powerful and the ordinary--have influenced the course of urban history.For this, the sixth edition ofThe Evolution of American Urban Society,we have updated the scholarship and bibliographies for each chapter, paying particular attention to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, the built environment, regional differentials, and emerging cultural forms such as rock and rap music. Wherever possible, we have added perspectives on the environmental impact of cities and suburbs. The chapters on the post-World War II cities offer new attention to the new racial and ethnic mix produced by the most recent immigration trends and to the re-institutionalization of segregation resulting from public housing development and highway policies. As well, we have tried to be sensitive to the effects of concentrated poverty in inner-city neighborhoods and the costs of hardening barriers between city and suburb. The final chapter has been expanded to take into account issues relating to the presidential administration of George W. Bush and to the consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.Once again, we owe special thanks to Pembroke Herbert for her valuable picture research and to Jim O'Brien for his efficient indexing. We also wish to acknowledge the insightful critiques offered by Mark Newman, National Louis University; Abel Bartley University of Akron; Anne Brophy Georgia State University; George Lubick, Northern Arizona University; and Jacob Judd, CUNY/Lehman College. Howard Chudacoff thanks Nancy Fisher Chudacoff for guidance and inspiration, and Judith Smith thanks Larry Blum, and Ben, Sarah, and Laura Blum-Smith for their insights and support.