America's Urban History

Lisa Krissoff Boehm, Steven H. Corey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781000904970
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In this second edition, America's Urban History now includes contemporary analysis of race, immigration, and cities under the Trump administration and has been fully updated with new scholarship on early urbanization, mass incarceration and cities, the Great Society, the diversification of the suburbs, and environmental justice.

The United States is one of the most heavily urbanized places in the world, and its urban history is essential to understanding the fundamental narrative of American history. This book is an accessible overview of the history of American cities, including Indigenous settlements, colonial America, the American West, the postwar metropolis, and the present-day landscape of suburban sprawl and an urbanized population. It examines the ways in which urbanization is connected to divisions of society along the lines of race, class, and gender, but it also studies how cities have been sources of opportunity, hope, and success for individuals and the nation. Images, maps, tables, and a guide to further reading provide engaging accompaniment to illustrate key concepts and themes.

Spanning centuries of America's urban past, this book's depth and insight make it an ideal text for students and scholars in urban studies and American history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: American History as Urban History
• 1 Indigenous American Settlements: Pre-Colonial and Seventeenth-Century Urbanization
• 2 Transplanting Cities and Urban Networks: Spain, France, and the Netherlands in Colonial America, 1565–1821
• 3 City, Plantation, Metropolis: The Anglo-American Urban Experience, 1587–1800
• 4 An Urban Frontier: The American West, 1800–1869
• 5 The Urban Cauldron: City Growth and the Rise of Social Reform, 1820–1920
• 6 The Urban Nation: Middletown and Metropolis, 1920–1932
• 7 New Deal, New Cities: The 1930s
• 8 War and Postwar Metropolis: Cities, Suburbs, and Exurbs, 1940s–1950s
• 9 The Frontier of Imagination: American Cities in the 1960s
• 10 Attempting Revival and Renaissance: The 1970s–1980s
• 11 The Neoliberal City: Fear, Vulnerability, and Inequality, 1990–2015
• 12 America’s Urban Promise and the Lingering Tensions of Race, 2016–Present
• Partial Bibliography and Suggested Reading
• Index