Urbanization In The Americas From Its Beginning To The Present

The history of the American city is, in many ways, the history of the United States. Although rural traditions have also left their impact on the country, cities and urban living have been vital components of America for centuries, and an understanding of the urban experience is essential to comprehending America’s past. America’s Urban History is an engaging and accessible overview of the life of American cities, from Native American settlements before the arrival of Europeans to the present-day landscape of suburban sprawl, urban renewal, and a heavily urbanized population. The book provides readers with a rich chronological and thematic narrative, covering themes including: The role of cities in the European settlement of North America Cities and westward expansion Social reform in the industrialized cities The impact of the New Deal The growth of the suburbs The relationships between urban forms and social issues of race, class, and gender Covering the evolving story of the American city with depth and insight, America's Urban History will be the first stop for all those seeking to explore the American urban experience.

This book is the first edited collection to bring together classic and contemporary writings on the urban grid in a single volume. The contributions showcased in this book examine the spatial histories of the grid from multiple perspectives in a variety of urban contexts. They explore the grid as both an indigenous urban form and a colonial imposition, a symbol of Confucian ideals and a spatial manifestation of the Protestant ethic, a replicable model for real estate speculation within capitalist societies and a spatial framework for the design of socialist cities. By examining the entangled histories of the grid, Gridded Worlds considers the variegated associations of gridded urban space with different political ideologies, economic systems, and cosmological orientations in comparative historical perspective. In doing so, this interdisciplinary anthology seeks to inspire new avenues of research on the past, present, and future of the gridded worlds of urban life. Gridded Worlds is primarily tailored to scholars working in the fields of urban history, world history, urban historical geography, architectural history, urban design, and the history of urban planning, and it will also be of interest to art historians, area studies scholars, and the urban studies community more generally.

This historical monograph examines the decline of the hacienda estates within Jalisco, Mexico during the early decades of the 20th century. The book also explores the impact of the land reform program of President Lazaro Cardenas in transforming the agrarian economic structure of the region. This study contributes to an ongoing lively debate about the hacienda system and the meaning of the Cardenas reforms. This is an important work because it explores the evolution of a regional socio-economic system that promoted urban industrial growth at the expense of the rural poor. The model of regional development described is applicable to other areas of Mexico and underdeveloped Third World nations with extensive peasant populations. The research for this investigation has wider implications regarding issues of global hunger and malnutrition.

This wide-ranging volume presents the most complete appraisal of modern African history to date. It assembles dozens of new and established scholars to tackle the questions and subjects that define the field, ranging from the economy, the two world wars, nationalism, decolonization, and postcolonial politics to religion, development, sexuality, and the African youth experience. Contributors are drawn from numerous fields in African studies, including art, music, literature, education, and anthropology. The themes they cover illustrate the depth of modern African history and the diversity and originality of lenses available for examining it. Older themes in the field have been treated to an engaging re-assessment, while new and emerging themes are situated as the book’s core strength. The result is a comprehensive, vital picture of where the field of modern African history stands today.