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Title: Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950 by Robert M. Fogelson ISBN: 0-300-09827-8 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating--definitely recommended
Comment: This is a wonderful book; it is comprehensively researched and offers a detailed history of why US downtowns developed and declined. Anybody who is interested in urban planning and downtown revitalization should read this to see why downtowns were successful for so many years and why they fell; for example, a current trend is to revitalize downtowns by attracting more residents, but 19th century downtowns developed by pushing out residents in favor of commercial growth. I couldn't put this book down; it's absolutely compelling and I would highly recommend it.
Rating: 4
Summary: Intriguing Insights
Comment: This is an objective and highly readable history of the decentralization of American cities and the many efforts to stem the decline of downtown. The book's descriptions of the debates and strategies employed to maintain the dominance of downtown in light of suburban growth, the decline of public transit, the construction of urban highways and the rise of outlying shopping centers are intriguing. Some examples: Early subway projects were sometimes opposed as being a fruitless strategy to decrease congestion because they would only lead to more intense development that would bring increased downtown congestion (an argument often heard today regarding highway projects). Highways into downtown were viewed by many as a way to woo suburbanites back downtown, while they turned out to be a major impetus to suburban development. The atom bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki led some planners to advocate for the end of high density settlements as being too risky in the nuclear age. The book doesn't get preachy the way many "planning" books do. It is an objective history that simply tells it like it is.
Rating: 4
Summary: An unrefined treasure
Comment: Fogelson's Downtown is a scholarly, though at times disjoint, review of the forces that shaped the cities of America during the 70 year span from 1880 to 1950.
Downtown offers a thorough treatment of several topics such as the formation of a central business district, transportation issues and the battle over building height limits. This book is not a light and breezy read, however. Each topic is explored in great detail and, though there is some overlap between the topics, the book does not make any attempt to integrate them into some sort of grand narrative.
The author demonstrates a broad knowledge of the major American cities during this era. Rich in detail, the book takes a well balanced look at all of the forces that shaped each issue. Most often these forces included the politics and the economics of the time.
The fact that no grand and unified theory is presented works in this book's favor. In the end, Downtown is free from any sort of bias and instead serves to present, as Sergeant Joe Friday would say, "just the facts."
Downtown is a well-researched and well-written work. It is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in studying the history and dynamics of America's downtowns.
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Title: Building Suburbia : Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 by Dolores Hayden ISBN: 0375421289 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The New City: Urban America in the Industrial Age, 1860-1920 by Raymond A. Mohl ISBN: 0882958305 Publisher: Harlan Davidson Pub. Date: March, 1985 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 (Creating the North American Landscape) by Jon C. Teaford ISBN: 0801841348 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1990 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Urban Wilderness: A History of the American City (Classics in Urban History, 5) by Sam Bass, Jr. Warner, Charles Tilly ISBN: 0520202244 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: August, 1995 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America by Lizabeth Cohen ISBN: 0375407502 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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