From Smithsonian.com by Lorraine Boissoneault: The future had arrived, and it looked nothing like what city planners expected. It was the early 1960s, and despite economic prosperity, American urban centers were plagued by pollution, poverty, the violence of segregation and… Read More ›
Urban History
The Emergence of Urban Planning in the South, 1880-1930
From Tropics of Meta by Alex Sayf Cummings author Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century: To take a bibliography of southern history on its face, one could conclude that urban planning… Read More ›
Using Poor Laws to Regulate Race in Providence in the 1820s
From Process: A blog for American History by Gabriel Loicono In 1825, members of the town council of Providence, Rhode Island, made a public—and unusual—complaint. They took to the newspapers to complain about how much work they had to do…. Read More ›
What Factors Led to the Creation of the First Cities?
The rise of cities in the ancient Near East during the fourth millennium BC (4000-3000 BC) is a key event in the history of the world, as urban patterns that first arose there became patterns inherited in many societies, including… Read More ›
Shantytown, USA: Interview with Lisa Goff
The Harvard University Press recently published Lisa Goff’s new book Shantytown, USA: Forgotten Landscapes of the Working Poor. There’s a chance that one of your American ancestors lived in an American shantytown. While we may not realize it now, shantytowns… Read More ›