Camden After the Fall

Howard Gillette, Jr., is Professor of History at Rutgers University and the author of Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• PrefaceIntroductionPART I. SHIFTING FORTUNESChapter 1. A City That WorkedChapter 2. Camden TransformedPART II. SHIFTING POWERChapter 3. To Save Our CityChapter 4. From City to County: The Rise of the Suburban Power StructurePART III. SHIFTING STRATEGYChapter 5. The Downtown Waterfront: Changing Camden's ImageChapter 6. The Neighborhoods: Not by Faith AloneChapter 7. The Courts: Seeking Justice and FairnessPART IV. SHIFTING PROSPECTSChapter 8. The Politics of RecoveryChapter 9. Future Camden: Reinventing the City, Engaging the RegionConclusionNote on SourcesNotesIndexAcknowledgments

"A fascinating and frequently eloquent exploration of the city's history since World War II." (Camden Courier Post) "The best study so far about the virtual collapse in the late twentieth century of South Jersey's largest city." (New York Times) "A masterly narrative. . . . An invaluable primer to understanding the dynamics, parameters, institutions, and politics of urban renewal after the Great Society." (Journal of American History) "A thorough, well-researched, and important book. Through a careful analysis of people and politics, Gillette challenges the accepted narrative of postwar urban decline. The story of Camden is of special consequence to urban historians, historians of late twentieth-century U.S. political economy, and students of contemporary urban policy. Gillette is certainly the person to tell that story." (Robert Self, Brown University) "With keen insight, Howard Gillette movingly details how de-industrialization, suburbanization, racial isolation, and political exploitation reduced Camden from industrial powerhouse to America's third poorest city. Through the rich biography of one city, Camden's fall could be the story of the half-century decline of many industrial cities and their struggles to revive, just more so. Camden After the Fall will become a classic in the field of urban history." (David Rusk, author of Inside Game/Outside Game: Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America)