Urban History
Encyclopedia
Urban history is a field of history
that examines the historical nature of cities
and town
s, and the process of urbanization
. The approach tends to be multidisciplinary, crossing boundaries into fields like social history
, architectural history
, urban sociology
, urban geography
and archaeology
.
At least five major approaches to the field of urban history can be identified.
focuses on the processes of by which existing populations concentrate themselves in urban localities
over time, and on the social and cultural contexts of cities and towns.
This includes examinations of demographics concentration, urban structures or systems approach, and behavioral aspects of urbanization
.
Major works representing the history of urbanization:
Some significant urban biographies:
regarding home ownership as defined by developers and the power of advertising. Sies (2001) argues that it is necessary to examine how "suburb" is defined as well as the distinction made between cities and suburbs, geography, economic circumstances, and the interaction of numerous factors that move research beyond acceptance of stereotyping and its influence on scholarly assumptions.
seeking to understand the "city as process" and, through quantitative methods, to learn more about the inarticulate masses in the cities, as opposed to the mayors and elites. Common themes include the social and political changes, examinations of class formation, and racial/ethnic tensions. A major early study was Stephan Thernstrom's Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (1964), which used census records to study Newburyport, Massachusetts
, 1850-1880. A seminal, landmark book, it sparked interest in the 1960s and 1970s in quantitative methods, census sources, "bottom-up" history, and the measurement of upward social mobility by different ethnic groups.
Other exemplars of the new urban history included
There were no overarching social history theories that emerged developed to explain urban development. Inspiration from urban geography and sociology, as well as a concern with workers (as opposed to labor union leaders), families, ethnic groups, racial segregation, and women's roles have proven useful. Historians now view the contending groups within the city as "agents" who shape the direction of urbanization. The sub-field has flourished in Australia—where most people live in cities.
Rather than being strictly areas of geographical segmentation, spatial patterns and concepts of place reveal the struggles for power of various social groups, including gender, class, race, and ethnic identity. The spatial patterns of residential and business areas give individual cities their distinct identities and, considering the social aspects attendant to the patterns, create a more complete picture of how those cities evolved, shaping the lives of their citizens.
London
, England, for example, has been used as the focus to investigate a host of different topics:
of cities
and the role of cities in culture is a more recent development which provides nontraditional ways of "reading" cities. The basis for much of this approach stems from an post-modern theory
including the literary theory
of Jacques Derrida
and the cultural anthropology
of Clifford Geertz
. One example is Alan Mayne's The Imagined Slum: Newspaper Representation in Three Cities, 1870-1914(1993), a study of how slums were represented in the popular press in Sydney
, San Francisco, and Birmingham
. Mayne argues that slums were social constructions, and that these representations led directly to the contemporary schemes of slum clearance
and city improvement
.
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
that examines the historical nature of cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
and town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
s, and the process of urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
. The approach tends to be multidisciplinary, crossing boundaries into fields like social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
, architectural history
Architectural History
Architectural History is the main journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain .The journal is published each autumn. The architecture of the British Isles is a major theme of the journal, although it includes more general papers on the history of architecture. Member of...
, urban sociology
Urban sociology
Urban sociology is the sociological study of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doing so providing inputs for planning and policy making. Like...
, urban geography
Urban geography
Urban geography is the study of areas which have a high concentration of buildings and infrastructure. These are areas where the majority of economic activities are in the secondary sector and tertiary sectors...
and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
.
At least five major approaches to the field of urban history can be identified.
History of urbanization
The history of urbanizationUrbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
focuses on the processes of by which existing populations concentrate themselves in urban localities
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
over time, and on the social and cultural contexts of cities and towns.
This includes examinations of demographics concentration, urban structures or systems approach, and behavioral aspects of urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
.
Major works representing the history of urbanization:
- For the demographic aspects, one standard work is Eric Lampard, The Urbanizing World, in H. J. Dyos and Michael Wolff, eds., The Victorian City: Images and Realities, vol. 1 (1973), pp. 3–58.
- Demographic, economic, and systems analysis is provided in Paul BairochPaul BairochBorn of Jewish parents who emigrated from Poland, Paul Bairoch was one of the great post-war economic historians who specialized in global economic history, urban history and historical demography...
, Cities and Economic Development, From the Dawn of History to the Present (1988). - Cultural and physical connections are analyzed by Lewis MumfordLewis MumfordLewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
, The City in History (1961). - Architecture and urban form are related in Spiro KostofSpiro KostofDr. Spiro Konstantine Kostof was a leading architectural historian and inspirational teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. His books continue to be widely read and some are routinely used in collegiate courses on architectural history.A Bulgarian born in Turkey, Kostof was educated...
, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History (1991). - The place of cities in the process of state formation in Europe is examined in Charles TillyCharles TillyCharles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....
and W. P. Blockmans, eds., Cities and the Rise of States in Europe, A.D. 1000 to 1800 (1994). - Some important works on the history of the earliest cities and ancient urbanization processes are:
- Trigger, Bruce G.Bruce TriggerBruce Graham Trigger, was a Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnohistorian.Born in Preston, Ontario, he received a doctorate in archaeology from Yale University in 1964. His research interests at that time included the history of archaeological research and the comparative study of...
(2003) Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Cambridge University Press, New York. - Van De Mieroop, MarcMarc van de MieroopMarc Van de Mieroop is a professor of Ancient Near Eastern history at Columbia University.In addition to his articles and translations, his book publications include:*Crafts in the Early Isin Period ,...
(1999) The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford University Press, Oxford. - Hyslop, John (1990) Inka Settlement Planning. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Urban biography
Urban biography is the narrative history of a city. This is the most popular form of urban history as far as the general public is concerned. Urban biographies attempt to relate the many complex facets of a city - such as foundations, leaders, economic base, transportation, municipal government, physical expansion, demographic characteristics, and schools and cultural institutions. The city itself gains a distinct collective personality, and becomes more than just a setting for historical events.Some significant urban biographies:
- Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898 (2000)
- Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (1993)
- S. G. Checkland, The Upas Tree: Glasgow, 1875-1975 (1981)
- Geoffrey Cotterell, Amsterdam, The Life of a City (1972)
- Janet Abu-LughodJanet Abu-LughodJanet L. Abu-Lughod, née Lippman is an American sociologist with major contributions to World-systems theory and Urban sociology.-Family:She was married in 1951–1991 to Ibrahim Abu-Lughod...
, Cairo; 1001 Years of City Victorious (1971) - Franklin Tokler, Pittsburgh, An Urban Portrait (1986)
- Christopher HibbertChristopher HibbertChristopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS was an English writer, historian and biographer. He has been called "a pearl of biographers" and "probably the most widely-read popular historian of our time and undoubtedly one of the most prolific"...
, London, the Biography of a City (1969) - Blake McKelvey. Rochester (4 vol, 1961), Rochester NYHistory of Rochester, New YorkThis article documents the history of Rochester, New York, part of present day New York State.-Early settlement:Following the American Revolution, western New York was opened up for development as soon as New York and Massachusetts compromised and settled their competing claims for the area in...
- Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago (3 vol 1957), to 1893.
- Robert HughesRobert Hughes-Politicians:*Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside , British Labour politician, MP for Aberdeen North*Robert Gurth Hughes , British Conservative politician, MP for Harrow West-Sportsmen:*Robert Hughes , of Stamford FC...
, Barcelona (1992)
Suburbs
A new sub-genre is the history of specific suburbs. Most works look at the origins, growth, diverse typologies, culture, and politics of suburbs, as well as to the gendered and family-oriented nature of suburban space. Many people have assumed that early-20th-century suburbs were enclaves for middle-class whites, a concept that carries tremendous cultural influence yet is actually stereotypical. Many suburbs are based on a heterogeneous society of working-class and minority residents, many of whom share the American DreamAmerican Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
regarding home ownership as defined by developers and the power of advertising. Sies (2001) argues that it is necessary to examine how "suburb" is defined as well as the distinction made between cities and suburbs, geography, economic circumstances, and the interaction of numerous factors that move research beyond acceptance of stereotyping and its influence on scholarly assumptions.
New urban history
The "new urban history" emerged in the 1960s as a branch of Social historySocial history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
seeking to understand the "city as process" and, through quantitative methods, to learn more about the inarticulate masses in the cities, as opposed to the mayors and elites. Common themes include the social and political changes, examinations of class formation, and racial/ethnic tensions. A major early study was Stephan Thernstrom's Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (1964), which used census records to study Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport is a small coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles northeast of Boston. The population was 21,189 at the 2000 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island...
, 1850-1880. A seminal, landmark book, it sparked interest in the 1960s and 1970s in quantitative methods, census sources, "bottom-up" history, and the measurement of upward social mobility by different ethnic groups.
Other exemplars of the new urban history included
- Kathleen Conzen, Immigrant Milwaukee, 1836-1860 (1976)
- Alan Dawley, Class and Community: The Industrial Revolution in Lynn (1975; 2nd ed. 2000)
- Michael B. Katz, The People of Hamilton, Canada West (1976)
- Eric H. Monkkonen, The Dangerous Class: Crime and Poverty in Columbus Ohio 1860-1865 (1975)
- Michael P. Weber, Social Change in an Industrial Town: Patterns of Progress in Warren, Pennsylvania, From Civil War to World War I. (1976).
There were no overarching social history theories that emerged developed to explain urban development. Inspiration from urban geography and sociology, as well as a concern with workers (as opposed to labor union leaders), families, ethnic groups, racial segregation, and women's roles have proven useful. Historians now view the contending groups within the city as "agents" who shape the direction of urbanization. The sub-field has flourished in Australia—where most people live in cities.
Rather than being strictly areas of geographical segmentation, spatial patterns and concepts of place reveal the struggles for power of various social groups, including gender, class, race, and ethnic identity. The spatial patterns of residential and business areas give individual cities their distinct identities and, considering the social aspects attendant to the patterns, create a more complete picture of how those cities evolved, shaping the lives of their citizens.
Thematic urban history
A variety of themes (economic, social, architectural, etc) can be examined in the context of cities. Much like micro-history, thematic studies often investigate a larger historical question by examining one city.London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, for example, has been used as the focus to investigate a host of different topics:
- James Alexander, The Economic Structure of the City of London at the end of the 17th Century, Urban History Yearbook (1989), pp. 47–62
- Peter Borsay, The London Connection: Cultural Diffusion and the 18th Century Provincial Town, London Journal19 (No. 1, 1994), pp. 21–35.
- Peter LinebaughPeter LinebaughPeter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.-Education:...
, The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the 18th Century (1993). - Donald Olsen, The Growth of Victorian London (1979).
- H. J. Dyos, The Speculative Builders and Developers of Victorian London, in David CannadineDavid CannadineSir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism. He is also notable as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the monarchy. He serves as the generaleditor...
and David Reeder, eds., Exploring the Urban Past, Essays in Urban History by H. J. Dyos (1982), pp. 154–78. - Edward Jones and Christopher Woodward, A Guide to the Architecture of London (1983).
- John Russell, London (1994)
Urban culture
The study of the cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
of cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
and the role of cities in culture is a more recent development which provides nontraditional ways of "reading" cities. The basis for much of this approach stems from an post-modern theory
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
including the literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
of Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
and the cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
of Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until...
. One example is Alan Mayne's The Imagined Slum: Newspaper Representation in Three Cities, 1870-1914(1993), a study of how slums were represented in the popular press in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, San Francisco, and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. Mayne argues that slums were social constructions, and that these representations led directly to the contemporary schemes of slum clearance
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
and city improvement
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
.
Email discussion
Sine 1993, the daily email discussion list H-Urban has enabled historians, graduate students and others interested in urban history and urban studies to communicate current research and research interests easily; to query and discuss new approaches, sources, methods, and tools of analysis; and to comment on contemporary historiography. The logs are open to searches, and membership is free. H-Urban seeks to inform historians on such matters as announcements, calls for papers, conferences, awards, fellowships, availability of new sources and archives, reports on new research, and teaching tools, including books, articles, works-in-progress, research reports, primary historical documents (for example, model ordinances, federal/state/local reports, addresses of city officials), syllabi, bibliographies, software, datasets, and multimedia publications or projects. It commissions its own book reviews. H-Urban is part of the H-Net network of discussion lists.Further reading
- Abbott, Carl. "Urban History for Planners," Journal of Planning History, Nov 2006, Vol. 5 Issue 4, pp 301–313
- Chudacoff, Howard et al. eds. Major Problems in American Urban and Suburban History (2004)
- Fritzsche, Peter. Reading Berlin 1900 (1996).
- Gillette Jr., Howard, and Zane L. Miller, eds. American Urbanism: A Historiographical Review (1987)
- Harvey, DavidDavid Harvey (geographer)David Harvey is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York . A leading social theorist of international standing, he received his PhD in Geography from University of Cambridge in 1961. Widely influential, he is among the top 20 most cited...
, Consciousness and the Urban Experience: Studies in the History and Theory of Capitalist Urbanization (1985), a Marxist approach - Hays, Samuel P. From the History of the City to the History of the Urbanized Society, Journal of Urban History, 19 (Aug. 1993), 3-25.
- Lees, Lynn Hollen. "The Challenge of Political Change: Urban History in the 1990s," Urban History, 21 (April, 1994), pp. 7–19.
- McManus, Ruth, and Philip J. Ethington, "Suburbs in transition: new approaches to suburban history," Urban History, Aug 2007, Vol. 34 Issue 2, pp 317–337
- McShane, Clay. "The State of the Art in North American Urban History," Journal of Urban History, May2006, Vol. 32 Issue 4, pp 582–597, a loss of influence by such writers as Lewis Mumford, Robert Caro, and Sam Warner, a continuation of the emphasis on narrow, modern time periods, and a general decline in the importance of the field. Comments by Timothy Gilfoyle and Carl Abbott contest the latter conclusion.
- Piker, BurtonBurton PikeBurton Pike is professor emeritus of comparative literature and Germanic languages and literature at the CUNY Graduate Center. He received his Ph. D from Harvard University, and has also taught at the University of Hamburg, Cornell University, and Queens College and Hunter College of the City...
, The Image of the City in Modern Literature (1981) - Rodger, Richard. "Urban History: Prospect and Retrospect", Urban History, 19 (April, 1992), pp. 1–22.