The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader

The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader introduces the history of cities and suburbs in the United States through a collection of original source materials that explore the centrality of urban change to the American experience. Readers are encouraged to consider how a wide range of people, including themselves, have related to the built environment as they explore key questions and debates in urban studies. Featuring more than 60 primary sources, ranging from correspondence and photographs to marketing tools and government documents, this collection highlights the sweeping changes in metropolitan development over the past 150 years. Topics include infrastructure development, consumer culture, electoral politics, environmental change, battles over rights, the role of technology, and the contested meaning of citizenship. Collectively, these materials reveal how the history of cities and suburbs is not limited to buildings, innovation, and politics—and not confined to municipal boundaries. The Modern American Metropolis enables readers to view the whole of modern U.S. history as an essentially “metropolitan” history.

Part I: Cities and hinterlands in mid–19 th century America 1. Transforming the landscape and its functions Chicago’s Daily Democrat measures the impact of the transport revolution, 1852                           Cyrus McCormick markets the Virginia reaper to the nation’s farmers, 1851                                   Texans appeal for the removal of native peoples, 1858–9                                                       Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine discusses the value of slave labor, 1855–8                                 2. Snapshots of urban life on the eve of the Civil War Margaret McCarthy writes her family in Ireland, 1850                                                          Frederick Law Olmsted compares northern and southern cities, 1856                                    The New York Times reports on a millworker strike in Lynn, 1859                                       Reverend Albert Williams describes San Francisco’s mid–century fires                                  Part II: From walking city to industrial metropolis, 1860–1920 3. Commerce and the metropolis The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 connects the nation                                                          William Dean Howells describes suburban Boston, 1872                                                       August Spies addresses workers about their conditions, 1886                                               An engineer describes the work required to make Seattle competitive, 1908 New York City retailers organize to protect a 5 th Avenue shopping district, 1916                                                                                                                                                      4. “Natives,” migrants and immigrants A Polish immigrant describes life and work in New York City, 1902                                                  La Cronica reports on challenges facing the Texan–Mexican community, 1910–1911 Miners call for boycott of Chinese and their patrons, 1891–92                                  Good Housekeeping counsels “The Commuter’s Wife,” 1909                                                 Black southerners write the Chicago Defender for information about employment, 1916–18               5. Big city life Urban imagery, 1889–1913                                                                 A young governess discusses her new freedoms, 1902                                                          A cultural critic describes the pleasures and dangers of Coney Island, 1915                                    A Harpers Weekly columnist worries about garbage, 1891                                                                    6. Local politics in the Gilded Age    George Washington Plunkitt defends patronage politics in New York City, 1905               Dallas’ commissioner advocates running a city like a business, 1909                                    Jane Addams describes the goals of Hull House, 1893 An economist investigates employers’ response to labor unions                                                          Part III: City and suburb ascendant, 1920–1945 7. Commerce, consumption, and the suburban trend An investment banker insists that “Everyone ought to be rich,” 1929                                    Commerce and the good life, 1920–1931 Former union members describe finding work and building cars at Ford Motor company        Alfred Kazin recalls New York City’s ethnic boundaries before World War II                    A social scientist explains the “suburban trend,” 1925                       Suburban speculation creates empty subdivisions, 1925                                             8. Economic collapse and metropolitan crisis The New Deal rebuilds the metropolis during the Great Depression                         Jane Yoder recalls living through the Depression in an Illinois mining town                                     Langston Hughes remembers rent parties in Harlem                                                  Jose Yglesias describes the 1930s in Tampa and New York City                                                          9. The metropolis at war The L.A. Chamber of Congress coordinates the region’s war production efforts, 1942–3    Henry Cervantes describes his journey from migrant farm worker to World War II hero                 White transit workers walk off the job in Philadelphia, 1944                                                Jeane Wakatsuki Houston recounts her family’s forced relocation from Santa Monica, California   Part IV: Creating a suburban nation, 1945–1970s 10. “The Affluent Society” Veterans line up for homes in Long Island, 1949                                                         Sunset magazine markets a suburban way of living, 1946/1958                                             Ebony discusses homeownership and domestic life for a steelworker’s family in Gary, Indiana, 1957 Catherine Marshall defends a housewife’s right to work, 1956                                               11. Public policy and “best use” in neighborhood development The Federal Housing Administration defines value in single family, suburban housing      A U.S. Senator argues that military spending is producing inequality, 1962                         Herbert Gans identifies problems with urban renewal legislation, 1959                                            U.S. News and World Report warns of contaminated suburban water supplies, 1963          12. Metropolitan contests over citizenship, rights, and access Local activists organize a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, 1954   Suburban homeowners in Michigan mobilize to exclude factories and black people, 1950–1 Residents of a Memphis neighborhood block construction of the interstate, 1967 Activists define Black Power, 1967 Gays and lesbians in New York City organize to combat discrimination, 1969            A photograph captures divisions in Boston over court–ordered busing, 1974   Part V: What makes a city?: The “post–industrial” metropolis 13. Redefining urban and suburban U.S. Steel demolishes its plant in Youngstown, Ohio, 1983 Residents debate the “Yuppie” invasion of Hoboken, New Jersey, 1984–87 Jersey City markets itself to a new demographic, 2004 and 2006                                         A professor explains how urban redevelopment has impacted Los Angeles’ minority communities, 1988   Planners assess a suburban experiment in “New Urbanism,” before the Great Recession, 1999                                          14. Growth and its challenges The global economy and global politics create new challenges in the Twin Cities region, 2012       College students in Merced rent empty McMansions, 2011                                                  “The Great Wall of Los Angeles” pictures the region’s development history, 1974–present  City–building in Kansas, an immigrant’s perspective, 200x Developers in L.A. County spark a 21 st century debate over city–building and environmental protection, 2009  

David M. P. Freund is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of the award–winning Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America (2007) and contributor to numerous educational, documentary, and public policy projects.