The Urban World, 9 th Ed.
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The Urban World, 9 th Ed. J. John Palen. Chapter 3: The Rise of Urban America. Introduction Colonists as Town Builders Major Settlements Colonial Urban Influence Cities of the New Nation The Industrial City Political Life Urban Imagery Summary. Introduction.
The Urban World, 9 th Ed.
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The Urban World, 9th Ed. J. John Palen
Chapter 3: The Rise of Urban America • Introduction • Colonists as Town Builders • Major Settlements • Colonial Urban Influence • Cities of the New Nation • The Industrial City • Political Life • Urban Imagery • Summary
Introduction • A look at the development of North America: From Jamestown up to the contemporary era
Colonists as Town Builders • Native American Indians were nomadic • Puritans believed themselves to be God’s chosen people • Colonists’ emphasized conquering natureand were town-oriented
Major Settlements • New England • Consisted of tight, self-reinforcing social elite • Boston and Newport valued education • The Middle Colonies • Manhattan most cosmopolitan because of the diversity in languages spoken • New York had a magnificent deepwater natural harbor, fertile soil, and access to the interior. • Philadelphia was the youngest of the colonial cities
The South • Charleston • Slow growing • Negative trade balance with Great Britain • Civic atrophy due to social structure • Canada • French established Quebec and Montreal • Mainly used as garrisons and trading posts • Not until the mid-19th century would Canadian cities become manufacturing and economic centers
Colonial Urban Influence • Seminal importance of colonial North American cities, regardless of size • New ideas and forms of social organization developed • Set the political tone
Cities of the New Nation: 1790-1860 • Rapid Growth • Pre-Civil War the North had rapid expansion and city growth • Influenced by • Environmental factors • Land speculation • Immigration • Marketplace Centers • The urban economy was in a commercial stage • The wealthy lived in the center of the city, while the poor were forced to the periphery
The Industrial City: 1860-1950 • Technological Developments • Urban technology opened the frontier and overcame the environment • The Railroad, improved farming techniques, and improved technology facilitated growth and prosperity • The location of cemeteries can be used as a gauge for previous city boundaries
Spatial Concentration • Concentration and Centralization: the late 19-century city’s layout, accentuated by industrialization • Industrialization encouraged centripetal rather than centrifugal forces • Workers’ homes located near factories • Twentieth-Century Dispersion • The telephone, electricity, and transportation advances aided in dispersion • Cities gained a star-shaped configuration due to public transportation
Political Life • Corruption and Urban Services • Political institutions were adequate under simplified rural conditions but inadequate to the task of governing a complicated system of ever-expanding public services and utilities • Political Bosses • Buffers between slum dwellers and the often hostile official bureaucracy • Distinguished between dishonest graft and honest graft, or “boodie”
Immigrants’ Problems • More than 40 million immigrants between 1800 and 1925 • Accelerated after the Civil War • To WASP writers around 1900, the sins of the city were frequently translated in the sins of the new immigrant groups • Reform Movements • Reformers were distinctly middle-class • Represented abstract WASP goals
Urban Imagery • Ambivalence • The city is exalted as the center of vitality, enterprise, and excitement OR denounced as sinks of crime, pollution, and depravity • Although Americans pour into cities, they traditionally idealize the country • Myth of Ritual Virtue • Only 1.6 percent of the American population still resides on farms • Small towns still depicted as filled with friendly folk with “down home” wisdom
