Voices of decline : the postwar fate of U.S. cities

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. 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. [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. Contents Preface 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 9 Not Excessively Inconvenienced Reading the Discourse 10 Epilogue Notes Index Covers the 20th century discourse on urban decline in the US, arguing that its pervasiveness through the media shaped how Americans viewed cities and was instrumental in creating the staggering problems in American cities. In the years just after World War II, only the most isolated of the country's residents could avoid the trauma afflicting the large, central cities.