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Rethinking American Urban History: New Directions for the Posturban Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Howard Gillette Jr.
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Extract

Once a shining light among specialties pursued under the influence of the “new” social history, urban history, after falling out of favor in recent years, is attempting a return to prominence. Having witnessed the departure from the field of prominent contributors, including Richard Sennett and Theodore Hershberg, and noting a decline in enrollment as well as participation in scholarly conferences, a group of historians has formed a new American Urban History Association, with the purpose, as Kenneth Jackson put it in his call to membership, of stimulating “interest in the study of the city in history, both in the United States and around the world.” This effort is but one part of the urban history revival. Following the demise of urban history series at Oxford University and Kennikat presses in the 1970s, new series have recently emerged, at Ohio State, Columbia, and Temple universities. A major conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.’s (1940) groundbreaking article on urban history is slated for Chicago in 1990. These events notwithstanding, urban historians have much to do to reassert their rightful place among other specialists in American history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Summer 1990 , pp. 203 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1990 

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