Modern American Metropolis

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.

• List of Illustrations xiiSeries Editors’ Preface xivAcknowledgments xviSource Acknowledgments xviiIntroduction Or, What Can a Wet BasementTell Us about Metropolitan History? 1Part I Cities and Hinterlands in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America 27Chapter 1 Transforming the Landscape and Its Functions 291 Chicago’s Daily Democrat Measures the Impact of the Transport Revolution, 1852 292 Cyrus McCormick Markets the Virginia Reaper to the Nation’s Farmers, 1850 and 1851 363 Texans Appeal for the Removal of Native Peoples, 1858–1859 404 Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine Discusses the Value of Slave Labor, 1855–1858 45Chapter 2 Snapshots of Urban Life on the Eve of the Civil War 501 An Irish Immigrant Writes Home about Life in the United States, 1850 502 Frederick Law Olmsted Compares Northern and Southern Cities along the Atlantic Seaboard, 1856 533 The New York Times Reports on a Millworker Strike in Lynn and Marblehead, 1859 604 Reverend Albert Williams Describes San Francisco’s Fires 63Part II From Walking City to Industrial Metropolis, 1860–1920 69Chapter 3 Commerce and the Metropolis 711 The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 Connects the Nation 712 William Dean Howells Describes Suburban Boston, 1872 753 August Spies Addresses Workers about Their Conditions, 1886 804 An Engineer Describes the Work Required to Make Seattle Competitive, 1908 845 New York City Retailers Organize to Protect a Fifth Avenue Shopping District, 1916 87Chapter 4 “Natives,” Migrants, and Immigrants 901 A Polish Immigrant Describes Life and Work in New York City, 1902 902 Unions Call for Boycott of Chinese and Their Patrons, 1891–1892 963 La Crónica Reports on Challenges Facing the Texan Mexican Community, 1910–1911 974 Good Housekeeping Counsels “The Commuter’s Wife,” 1909 1065 Black Southerners Write the Chicago Defender for Information about Employment, 1916–1918 110Chapter 5 Big City Life 1181 Urban Imagery, 1889–1913 1182 A Young Governess Discusses Her New Freedoms, 1903 1223 A Columnist Describes the Pleasures and Perils of Coney Island, 1915 1254 A Harper’s Weekly Columnist Worries about Garbage, 1891 129Chapter 6 Local Politics in the Gilded Age 1351 George Washington Plunkitt Defends Patronage Politics in New York City, 1905 1352 Dallas City Commissioner Advocates Running a City Like a Business, 1909 1393 Jane Addams Describes the Goals of Hull House, 1893 1414 An Economist Investigates Employers’ Response to Labor Unions 147Part III City and Suburb Ascendant, 1920–1945 155Chapter 7 Commerce, Consumption, and the Suburban Trend 1571 An Investment Banker Insists that “Everyone Ought to Be Rich,” 1929 1572 Commerce and the Good Life 1593 Former Employees Describe Finding Work and Building Cars for Ford Motor Company 1604 Alfred Kazin Recalls New York City’s Ethnic Boundaries Before World War II 1705 A Social Scientist Explains the “Suburban Trend,” 1925 1756 Suburban Speculation Creates Empty Subdivisions, 1925 179Chapter 8 Economic Collapse and Metropolitan Crisis 1821 The New Deal Rebuilds the Metropolis during the Great Depression 1822 Jane Yoder Describes Living through the Depression in a Central Illinois Mining Town 1853 Langston Hughes Remembers Rent Parties in Harlem 1874 Jose Yglesias Describes the 1930s in Tampa and New York City 190Chapter 9 The Metropolis at War 1941 The LA Chamber of Commerce Coordinates the Region’s War Production Efforts, 1942–1943 1942 Henry Cervantes Describes His Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to World War II Hero 1993 White Transit Workers Walk Off the Job in Philadelphia, 1944 2064 Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston Recounts Her Family’s Forced Relocation from Santa Monica, California 208Part IV Creating a Suburban Nation, 1945–1970s 215Chapter 10 “The Affluent Society” 2171 Veterans Line Up for Homes in Long Island, 1949 2172 Sunset Magazine Markets a Suburban Way of Living, 1946 and 1958 2193 Ebony Discusses Homeownership and Domestic Life for a Steelworker’s Family in Gary, Indiana, 1957 2234 Catherine Marshall Defends a Woman’s Right to Work, 1954 226Chapter 11 Public Policy and “Best Use” in American Neighborhoods 2291 The Federal Housing Administration Defines Value in Single-Family Suburban Housing 2292 A US Senator Argues That Military Spending Is Producing Inequality, 1962 2323 Herbert Gans Critiques Federal Urban Renewal Programs, 1959 2364 U.S. News and World Report Warns of Contaminated Suburban Water Supplies, 1963 240Chapter 12 Metropolitan Contests over Citizenship, Rights, and Access 2441 Local Activists Organize a Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, 1954 2442 Suburban Homeowners Mobilize to Exclude “Incompatible” Development, 1950–1951 2503 Residents of a Memphis Neighborhood Block Construction of the Interstate, 1967 2534 Activists Define Black Power, 1967 2575 Gays and Lesbians in New York City Organize to Combat Discrimination, 1969 2636 A Photograph Captures Divisions in Boston over Court-Ordered Busing, 1976 264Part V What Makes a City? The “Postindustrial” Metropolis 269Chapter 13 Redefining “Urban” and “Suburban” 2711 U.S. Steel Demolishes Its Plant in Youngstown, Ohio, 1983 2712 Hoboken Residents Debate the “Yuppie” Invasion, 1984–1987 2733 Jersey City Markets Itself to a New Demographic, 2003 and 2006 2784 A Professor Explains How Urban Redevelopment Has Impacted Los Angeles’s Minority Communities, 1987/1988 2815 Planners Assess an Experiment in “New Urbanism” (Before the Great Recession), 1999 286Chapter 14 Growth and Its Challenges 2921 The Global Economy and Global Politics Create New Challenges in the Twin Cities Region, 2012 2922 College Students in Merced Rent Empty McMansions, 2011 2953 The Great Wall of Los Angeles Pictures the Region’s Development History, 1974 to the Present 2984 City Building in Kansas: An Immigrant’s Perspective, 2007 3005 Developers in Los Angeles County Spark a Twenty-First-Century Debate over City Building andEnvironmental Protection, 2009 305Further Reading 313Index 319