The Evolution of American Urban Society

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

• ISBN13: 9780130115812
• ISBN10: 0130115819
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

For undergraduate courses on Urban History, Urban Economics, Urban Sociology, Urban Planning, Social History, Urban Studies, and Urban Politics. Helping students understand the historical issues underlying the society in which they live, this absorbing text surveys the dynamics of American urbanization from the sixteenth century to the present, skillfully blending historical perspectives on society, economics, politics, and policy, and focusing on the ways in which diverse peoples have inhabited and interacted in cities. Examining opposing centripetal and centrifugal forces in urbanization, it tackles sensitive ethnic and racial minority issues, offers multiple perspectives on women, and highlights urbanization's constantly shifting natureweaving insightful discussions throughout on adapting, and coping between people, the environment that they build, and the power structures that affect their lives.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1 Urban America in the Colonial Age, 1600-1776	1	(37)
Urban Beginnings	1	(9)
Problems of Growth	10	(6)
The Social Mosaic	16	(11)
Cities in the American Revolution	27	(9)
Bibliography	36	(1)
Notes	37	(1)
2 Commercialization and Urban Expansion in the New Nation, 1776-1860	38	(27)
The Commercial Revolution	38	(3)
Westward Expansion	41	(5)
Servicing the City	46	(8)
Protoindustrialization and Changes in Urban Social Structure	54	(8)
Bibliography	62	(2)
Notes	64	(1)
3 Life in the Walking City, 1820-1860	65	(21)
The Walking City	65	(4)
Contested Terrain	69	(11)
Cities and the Civil War	80	(4)
Bibliography	84	(1)
Notes	85	(1)
4 Industrialization and the Transformation of Urban Space, 1850-1920	86	(32)
The Growth of Mass Transit	86	(8)
Spatial Segregation and the Beginning of Urban Sprawl	94	(16)
The Quickening Pace of Industrialization	110	(5)
Bibliography	115	(2)
Notes	117	(1)
5 Newcomers and the Urban Core, 1850-1920	118	(39)
Migration, Old and New	118	(11)
Housing and Health	129	(8)
Coping with Inner-City Life	137	(10)
Patterns of Social Mobility	147	(6)
Bibliography	153	(3)
Notes	156	(1)
6 City Politics in the Era of Transformation	157	(26)
Origins of the Machine	157	(2)
Structure and Functions of the Machine	159	(5)
Some Notable Cases	164	(8)
Bosses and Their Opponents: City Governance and Municipal Reform	172	(2)
Goals and Tactics of Municipal Reform	174	(6)
Bibliography	180	(2)
Note	182	(1)
7 Refashioning the Social and Physical Environment	183	(29)
Impulses of Social Reform	183	(4)
Remedies of Social Reformers	187	(11)
Planning and Engineering the City	198	(4)
Reform Becomes Progressivism	202	(3)
The Rise of Urban Liberalism	205	(3)
Bibliography	208	(2)
Notes	210	(2)
8 Cities in an Age of Metropolitanism: The 1920s and 1930s	212	(51)
New Urban Growth	212	(5)
Suburbanization and Metropolitanism	217	(7)
Cities and Consumer Culture	224	(5)
Cities as a Cultural Battleground	229	(8)
Urban Politics in the 1920s	237	(2)
The Great Depression	239	(12)
Political and Social Life in the 1930s	251	(7)
Bibliography	258	(3)
Notes	261	(2)
9 The Politics of Growth in the Era of Suburbanization, 1945-1974	263	(34)
The Impact of World War II on Cities	263	(4)
Spatial Patterns of Growth	267	(6)
Reshaping Downtown: Progrowth Coalitions and Urban Renewal	273	(5)
Currents of Protest	278	(6)
Federal Response to Urban Crisis	284	(4)
Cracks in the Picture Window: Life in the Suburbs	288	(3)
New Breezes of Change	291	(3)
Bibliography	294	(3)
10 American Cities at the End of the Twentieth Century	297	(24)
Fiscal Crisis in City Hall	297	(1)
A Watershed in Urban Policy	298	(1)
The Carter Presidency and the Disappearance of Urban Policy	299	(3)
Ronald Reagan and Neglect as a Panacea	302	(2)
President George Bush and the Cities: An Unconvincing Imitation	304	(4)
President Bill Clinton's Brand of Neglect	308	(2)
Impact of Social Change	310	(3)
New Voices in Municipal Politics	313	(1)
Edge City and Inner City	314	(4)
The Future of American Cities	318	(1)
Bibliography	319	(1)
Note	320	(1)
Photo Credits	321	(2)
Index	323