The rise of cities in the United States from the early seventeenth century to the 1960s is the subject of this sophisticated and witty appraisal by a Pulitzer Prize historian.
Constance McLaughlin Green traces the forces - economic, political, social - that led to today's urban civilization, beginning with the growth of colonial seaports and local government, the rise of new cities that competed for wealth and power with the older cities, the spread of industrialization, transportation and communications that made complex city life possible. She discussed the influence of city life on art and architecture, the impact of depression and prosperity upon urban centres, and analyses present-day problems - race-relations, the population explosion, automation, the rise of suburbia, and the development of the 'megapolis' that links city with city in one vast urban interstate region.
This book was first published in 1966.
1. The first century of American urban life
2. From colonial entrepots to cities of a new nation
3. 'Manifest Destiny'
4. The impact of industrialisation 1860-1910
5. Social and political adjustments 1860-1910
6. The swing of the pendulum
7. Effects of the new deal and war
8. The population explosion and a changing urban world
Biography
Constance Mclauglin Green
