2nd Edition

Voices of Decline The Postwar Fate of US Cities

By Robert A. Beauregard Copyright 2003
    320 Pages 5 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    320 Pages 5 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    [FOR HISTORY CATALOGS]Drawing on the pronouncements of public commentators, this book portrays the 20th century history of U.S. cities, focusing specifically on how commentators crafted a discourse of urban decline and prosperity peculiar to the post-World War II era. The efforts of these commentators spoke to the foundational ambivalence Americans have toward their cities and, in turn, shaped the choices Americans made as they created and negotiated the country's changing urban landscape. [FOR GEOG/URBAN CATALOGS]Freely crossing disciplinary boundaries, this book uses the words of those who witnessed the cities' distress to portray the postwar discourse on urban decline in the United States. Up-dated and substantially re-written in stronger historical terms, this new edition explores how public debates about the fate of cities drew from and contributed to the choices made by households, investors, and governments as they created and negotiated America's changing urban landscape.

    Preface to Revised Edition Acknowledgments Framing the Discourse 1 Foundational Urban Debates Prelude to Postwar Decline 2 The Cities Wholesome and Good 3 Not Those of Decadence Escalating Downward 4 The Unhappy Process of Changing 5 On the Verge of Catastrophe From One Crisis to the Next 6 Every Problem a Racial Dimension 7 Crisis of Our Cities A Double Reversal of Fortune 8 Rising From the Ashes 9 Not Excessively Inconvenienced Reading the Discourse 10 Epilogue Index

    Biography

    Robert Beauregard is Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Public and Urban Policy at the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University. He is the author of numerous articles and books.

    'More than a decade after the first edition was released, Voices of Decline remains an important and impressive book. Beauregard raises issues and questions that continue to be central to our understanding of the city.' Urban History Review, Fall 06