Wiley The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader (Uncovering the Past: Documentary Readers in American History)

The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader introduces the history of American cities and suburbs through a collection of original source materials that historians have long used to make sense of the urban experience.Carefully integrates and juxtaposes the primary sources that are at the heart of the collectionRevisits and compares issues and themes over timeReveals how the history of cities and suburbs is not limited to buildings, innovation, and politics, and not confined to municipal boundariesExplores a wide variety of topics, including infrastructure development, electoral politics, consumer culture, battles over rights, environmental change, and the meaning of citizenship Review "David Freund, one of the leading historians of race, economics, and the modern American metropolis, has assembled an excellent collection of primary sources. Historians, city and regional planners, and urbanists of all varieties will find great material here for their classes or as a starting point for their own research.” –Thomas J. Sugrue, University of Pennsylvania"The Modern American Metropolis is a breath of fresh air: comprehensive, honest, and imminently readable. David Freund has crafted an essential intellectual companion for any student of American cities." –Robert O. Self, Brown University“This rich and diverse compendium of documents demonstrates that people make cities as much as cities make people.  David Freund has gifted us with an essential tool for teaching Urban Studies and Modern American History.” –Robin D. G. Kelley, University of California, Los Angeles From the Inside Flap The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader introduces the history of cities and suburbs in the United States through a collection of original source materials that explore the centrality of urban change to the American experience. Readers can explore key questions and debates in urban studies by considering how a wide range of people, including themselves, has related to the built environment and to sweeping transformations in metropolitan life over the past 150 years. The collection features more than 60 primary sources, ranging from correspondence and photographs to marketing tools and government documents. An introductory essay highlights topics that link together the sources, including the physical transformation of American places, consumer culture, electoral politics, environmental change, battles over rights and opportunity, the role of technology, and contests over the meaning of citizenship. Collectively, these materials reveal how the history of cities and suburbs is not limited to buildings, innovation, and politics - and not confined to municipal boundaries. The Modern American Metropolis enables readers to view the whole of modern U.S. history as an essentially 'metropolitan' history. From the Back Cover The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader introduces the history of cities and suburbs in the United States through a collection of original source materials that explore the centrality of urban change to the American experience. Readers can explore key questions and debates in urban studies by considering how a wide range of people, including themselves, has related to the built environment and to sweeping transformations in metropolitan life over the past 150 years. The collection features more than 60 primary sources, ranging from correspondence and photographs to marketing tools and government documents. An introductory essay highlights topics that link together the sources, including the physical transformation of American places, consumer culture, electoral politics, environmental change, battles over rights and opportunity, the role of technology, and contests over the meaning of citizenship. Collectively, these materials reveal how the history of cities and suburbs is not limited to buildings, innovation, and politics - and not confined to municipal