The Making of Urban America

The revised and updated third edition of The Making of Urban America includes seven new articles and a richly detailed historiographical essay that discusses the vast urban history literature added to the canon since the publication of the second edition. The authors’ extensively revised introductions and the fifteen reprinted articles trace urban development from the preindustrial city to the twentieth-century city. With emphasis on the social, economic, political, commercial, and cultural aspects of urban history, these essays illustrate the growth and change that created modern-day urban life. Dynamic topics such as technology, immigration and ethnicity, suburbanization, sunbelt cities, urban political history, and planning and housing are examined. The Making of Urban America is the only reader available that covers all of U.S. urban history and that also includes the most recent interpretive scholarship on the subject.

Table of Contents:
Preface Part I: The Preindustrial City Chapter 1: The Social Evolution of Preindustrial American Cities, 1700–1820 Chapter 2: Slavery, Emancipation, and Class Formation in Colonial and Early National New York City Chapter 3: The Enemy Within: Some Effects of Foreign Immigrants on Antebellum Southern Cities Part II: The Industrial City Chapter 4: Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889–1913 Chapter 5: The “Poor Man’s Friend”: Saloonkeepers, Workers, and the Code of Reciprocity in U.S. Barrooms, 1879–1920 Chapter 6: Leisure and Labor Chapter 7: Chicago’s 1919 Race Riot: Ethnicity, Class, and Urban Violence Chapter 8: Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers: From Industrial Infrastructure to Environmental Asset Part III: The Twentieth-Century Metropolis Chapter 9: The New Deal in Dallas Chapter 10: Crabgrass-Roots Politics: Race, Rights, and the Reaction against Liberalism in the Urban North, 1840–1964 Chapter 11: Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Film Noir, Disneyland, and the Cold War (Sub)Urban Imaginary Chapter 12: Planned Destruction: The Interstates and Central City Housing Chapter 13: Harold and Dutch: A Comparative Look at the First Black Mayors of Chicago and New Orleans Chapter 14: Latino Immigrants and the Politics of Space in Atlanta Chapter 15: What Is an American City? Part IV: The Historiography of Urban America Chapter 16: New Perspectives on American Urban History

About the Author :
Raymond A. Mohl is professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Roger Biles is professor of history at Illinois State University.

Review :
Highly recommended for any involved in urban studies programs at the college level. This new edition of The Making of Urban America highlights recent scholarship and shows the continued vitality of U.S. urban history. The methodological variety of the selections and the comprehensive bibliographic essay make the volume valuable to students and scholars alike. This thoroughly revised collection offers the broadest range of American urban historical research including both the essential classics and the best of the recent scholarship. It is an indispensable tool for urban history courses. The editors have written and selected wisely.