The Modern American Metropolis

List of Illustrations xii Series Editors' Preface xiv Acknowledgments xvi Source Acknowledgments xvii Introduction Or, What Can a Wet Basement Tell Us about Metropolitan History? 1 Part I Cities and Hinterlands in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America 27 Chapter 1 Transforming the Landscape and Its Functions 29 1 Chicago's Daily Democrat Measures the Impact of the Transport Revolution, 1852 29 2 Cyrus McCormick Markets the Virginia Reaper to the Nation's Farmers, 1850 and 1851 36 3 Texans Appeal for the Removal of Native Peoples, 1858-1859 40 4 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine Discusses the Value of Slave Labor, 1855-1858 45 Chapter 2 Snapshots of Urban Life on the Eve of the Civil War 50 1 An Irish Immigrant Writes Home about Life in the United States, 1850 50 2 Frederick Law Olmsted Compares Northern and Southern Cities along the Atlantic Seaboard, 1856 53 3 The New York Times Reports on a Millworker Strike in Lynn and Marblehead, 1859 60 4 Reverend Albert Williams Describes San Francisco's Fires 63 Part II From Walking City to Industrial Metropolis, 1860-1920 69 Chapter 3 Commerce and the Metropolis 71 1 The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 Connects the Nation 71 2 William Dean Howells Describes Suburban Boston, 1872 75 3 August Spies Addresses Workers about Their Conditions, 1886 80 4 An Engineer Describes the Work Required to Make Seattle Competitive, 1908 84 5 New York City Retailers Organize to Protect a Fifth Avenue Shopping District, 1916 87 Chapter 4 "Natives," Migrants, and Immigrants 90 1 A Polish Immigrant Describes Life and Work in New York City, 1902 90 2 Unions Call for Boycott of Chinese and Their Patrons, 1891-1892 96 3 La Crónica Reports on Challenges Facing the Texan Mexican Community, 1910-1911 97 4 Good Housekeeping Counsels "The Commuter's Wife," 1909 106 5 Black Southerners Write the Chicago Defender for Information about Employment, 1916-1918 110 Chapter 5 Big City Life 118 1 Urban Imagery, 1889-1913 118 2 A Young Governess Discusses Her New Freedoms, 1903 122 3 A Columnist Describes the Pleasures and Perils of Coney Island, 1915 125 4 A Harper's Weekly Columnist Worries about Garbage, 1891 129 Chapter 6 Local Politics in the Gilded Age 135 1 George Washington Plunkitt Defends Patronage Politics in New York City, 1905 135 2 Dallas City Commissioner Advocates Running a City Like a Business, 1909 139 3 Jane Addams Describes the Goals of Hull House, 1893 141 4 An Economist Investigates Employers' Response to Labor Unions 147 Part III City and Suburb Ascendant, 1920-1945 155 Chapter 7 Commerce, Consumption, and the Suburban Trend 157 1 An Investment Banker Insists that "Everyone Ought to Be Rich," 1929 157 2 Commerce and the Good Life 159 3 Former Employees Describe Finding Work and Building Cars for Ford Motor Company 160 4 Alfred Kazin Recalls New York City's Ethnic Boundaries Before World War II 170 5 A Social Scientist Explains the "Suburban Trend," 1925 175 6 Suburban Speculation Creates Empty Subdivisions, 1925 179 Chapter 8 Economic Collapse and Metropolitan Crisis 182 1 The New Deal Rebuilds the Metropolis during the Great Depression 182 2 Jane Yoder Describes Living through the Depression in a Central Illinois Mining Town 185 3 Langston Hughes Remembers Rent Parties in Harlem 187 4 Jose Yglesias Describes the 1930s in Tampa and New York City 190 Chapter 9 The Metropolis at War 194 1 The LA Chamber of Commerce Coordinates the Region's War Production Efforts, 1942-1943 194 2 Henry Cervantes Describes His Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to World War II Hero 199 3 White Transit Workers Walk Off the Job in Philadelphia, 1944 206 4 Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston Recounts Her Family's Forced Relocation from Santa Monica, California 208 Part IV Creating a Suburban Nation, 1945-1970s 215 Chapter 10 "The Affluent Society" 217 1 Veterans Line Up for Homes in Long Island, 1949 217 2 Sunset Magazine Markets a Suburban Way of Living, 1946 and 1958 219 3 Ebony Discusses Homeownership and Domestic Life for a Steelworker's Family in Gary, Indiana, 1957 223 4 Catherine Marshall Defends a Woman's Right to Work, 1954 226 Chapter 11 Public Policy and "Best Use" in American Neighborhoods 229 1 The Federal Housing Administration Defines Value in Single-Family Suburban Housing 229 2 A US Senator Argues That Military Spending Is Producing Inequality, 1962 232 3 Herbert Gans Critiques Federal Urban Renewal Programs, 1959 236 4 U.S. News and World Report Warns of Contaminated Suburban Water Supplies, 1963 240 Chapter 12 Metropolitan Contests over Citizenship, Rights, and Access 244 1 Local Activists Organize a Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, 1954 244 2 Suburban Homeowners Mobilize to Exclude "Incompatible" Development, 1950-1951 250 3 Residents of a Memphis Neighborhood Block Construction of the Interstate, 1967 253 4 Activists Define Black Power, 1967 257 5 Gays and Lesbians in New York City Organize to Combat Discrimination, 1969 263 6 A Photograph Captures Divisions in Boston over Court-Ordered Busing, 1976 264 Part V What Makes a City? The "Postindustrial" Metropolis 269 Chapter 13 Redefining "Urban" and "Suburban" 271 1 U.S. Steel Demolishes Its Plant in Youngstown, Ohio, 1983 271 2 Hoboken Residents Debate the "Yuppie" Invasion, 1984-1987 273 3 Jersey City Markets Itself to a New Demographic, 2003 and 2006 278 4 A Professor Explains How Urban Redevelopment Has Impacted Los Angeles's Minority Communities, 1987/1988 281 5 Planners Assess an Experiment in "New Urbanism" (Before the Great Recession), 1999 286 Chapter 14 Growth and Its Challenges 292 1 The Global Economy and Global Politics Create New Challenges in the Twin Cities Region, 2012 292 2 College Students in Merced Rent Empty McMansions, 2011 295 3 The Great Wall of Los Angeles Pictures the Region's Development History, 1974 to the Present 298 4 City Building in Kansas: An Immigrant's Perspective, 2007 300 5 Developers in Los Angeles County Spark a Twenty-First-Century Debate over City Building and Environmental Protection, 2009 305 Further Reading 313 Index 319