Main entry:

Isenberg, Alison.

Title & Author:

Downtown America : a history of the place and the people who made it / Alison Isenberg.

Publication:

Description:

xviii, 441 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Series:

Historical studies of urban America

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-419) and index.
Introduction: Beyond decline: assessing the values of urban commercial life in the twentieth century -- City beautiful or beautiful mess? The gendered origins of a civic ideal -- Fixing an image of commercial dignity: postcards and the business of planning Main Street -- "Mrs. Consumer," "Mrs. Brown America," and "Mr. Chain Store Man": economic woman and the laws of retail -- Main Street's interior frontier: innovation amid Depression and War -- "The demolition of our outworn past": suburban shoppers and the logic of urban renewal -- The hollow prize? Black buyers, racial violence, and the riot renaissance -- Animated by nostalgia: preservation and vacancy since the 1960s -- Conclusion: "The lights are much brighter there."
Current Copyright Fee: GBP18.44 0.

Summary:

"Downtown America was once the vibrant urban center romanticized in the Petula Clark song - a place where the lights were brighter, where people went to spend their money and forget their worries. But in the second half of the twentieth century, "downtown" became a shadow of its former self, succumbing to economic and commercial decline. And the death of Main Streets across the country came to be seen as sadly inexorable, like the passing of an aged loved one." "Downtown America cuts beneath this archetypal story of downtown's rise and fall and offers a new story of urban development in the United States. Moving beyond the conventional narratives, Alison Isenberg shows that the downtown's trajectory was not dictated by inevitable free market forces or natural life-and-death cycles. Instead, it was the product of human actors - the contested creation of retailers, developers, government leaders, architects, and planners, as well as political activists, consumers, civic clubs, real estate appraisers, and even postcard artists. Throughout the twentieth century, conflicts over downtown's mundane conditions - what it should look like and who should walk its streets - pointed to fundamental disagreements over American values." "Isenberg reveals how the innovative efforts of these participants infused Main Street with its resonant symbolism, while still accounting for pervasive uncertainty and fears of decline. Readers of this work will find anything but a story of inevitability. Even some of the downtown's darkest moments - the Great Depression's collapse in land values, the rioting and looting of the 1960s, or abandonment and vacancy during the 1970s - illuminate how core cultural values have animated and intertwined with economic investment to reinvent the physical form and social experiences of urban commerce. Downtown America - its empty stores, revitalized marketplaces, and romanticized past - will never look quite the same again." "A book that does away with our most cliched approaches to urban studies, Downtown America will appeal to readers interested in the history of the United States and the mythology surrounding its most cherished institutions."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required:
Table of contents

ISBN:

0226385078 (alk. paper)
9780226385075 (alk. paper)
0226385086 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780226385082 (pbk. ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Cities and towns United States History.
Central business districts United States History.
City and town life United States History.
Community life United States History.
Inner cities United States History.
Urban renewal United States History.
City planning United States History.
Villes États-Unis Histoire.
Quartiers d'affaires États-Unis Histoire.
Vie urbaine États-Unis Histoire.
Communauté États-Unis Histoire.
Centres-villes États-Unis Histoire.
Rénovation urbaine États-Unis Histoire.
Urbanisme États-Unis Histoire.
Central business districts.
Cities and towns.
City and town life.
City planning.
Community life.
Inner cities.
Urban renewal.
Innenstadt
Stadtplanung
Stadtkern
Geschäftsviertel
Steden.
Histoire.
Ville.
Vie urbaine.
Quartier d'affaires.
Communauté
Renouveau urbain.
Planification urbaine.
Urbanisme.
Centre-ville.
United States.
USA
États-Unis.

Form/genre:

History.

Added entries:

Historical studies of urban America.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 232042
Call No.: HT123 .I7 2004
Status: Available