University of North Carolina Press New World Cities: Challenges of Urbanization and Globalization in the Americas

For millennia, urban centers were pivots of power and trade that ruled and linked rural majorities. After 1950, explosive urbanization led to unprecedented urban majorities around the world. That transformation--inextricably tied to rising globalization--changed almost everything for nearly everybody: production, politics, and daily lives. In this book, seven eminent scholars look at the similar but nevertheless divergent courses taken by Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Houston in the twentieth century, attending to the challenges of rapid growth, the gains and limits of popular politics, and the profound local effects of a swiftly modernizing, globalizing economy. By exploring the rise of these six cities across five nations, New World Cities investigates the complexities of power and prosperity, difficulty and desperation, while reckoning with the social, cultural, and ethnic dynamics that mark all metropolitan areas.Contributors: Michele Dagenais, Mark Healey, Martin V. Melosi, Bryan McCann, Joseph A. Pratt, George J. Sanchez, and John Tutino. Review New World Cities successfully makes the case that differences between North and South American cities should be measured in degree, not kind.--Hispanic American Historical Review About the Author John Tutino is professor of history and international affairs and director of the Americas Initiative at Georgetown University.Martin V. Melosi is Cullen Emeritus Professor and founding director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.