We are an urban nation and have been so, officially at least, since the early twentieth century. But long before then, our cities played crucial roles in the economic and political development of the nation, as magnets for immigrants from here and abroad, and as centers of culture and innovation. They still do. Yet, the discipline that we call ‘Urban History’ is really a phenomenon of post-World War II scholarship.
Now, after a generation of pathbreaking scholarship that has reoriented and enlightened our perception of the American city, the two volumes of the
Encyclopedia of American Urban History offer both a summary and an interpretation of the field. With contributions from leading academics in their fields, this authoritative resource offers an interdisciplinary approach by covering topics from economics, geography, anthropology, politics, and sociology.
Key Features
- Addresses the rise of urban America using a concise, readable, and historical format
- Focuses on the 20th century—a century with the most dramatic urban growth and a time when the United States transformed from being a nation of shopkeepers and farmers to an urban industrial, and then post-industrial society
- Defines ‘urban’ broadly, including suburban environments, and even something new and, literally, far out, called ‘penurbia’
- Offers both a referential and a reverential approach to produce a work that functions as a research tool and as a commemoration of scholarship
- Includes contributions from leading academics and scholars as well as from those who work for non-profits, governments, and corporations
The
Encyclopedia of American Urban History is a fundamental reference work intended to ground and inspire future research in the field. It is an essential resource for any academic library.
Over de auteur
David Goldfield is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at UNC-Charlotte. He has been the Editor for the Journal of Urban History for several years and has authored numerous books, including America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation. Two of his books were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and he is recognized as one of the leading U.S. scholars on urban history.