Author: Gary Mattson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317509951
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
Before the interstates, Main Street America was the small town’s commercial spine and served as the linchpin for community social solidarity. Yet, during the past three decades, a series of economic downturns has left many of the great small cities barely viable. American Hometown Renewal is the first book to combine administrative, budgetary, and economic analysis to examine the economic and fiscal plight currently facing America’s small towns. Featuring a blend of theory, applications, and case studies, it provides a comprehensive, single-source textbook covering the key issues facing small town officials in today’s uncertain economy. Written by a former public manager, university professor, and consultant to numerous small towns in the Heartland, this book demonstrates the ways in which contemporary small towns throughout the nation are facing economic challenges brought about by the financial shocks that began in 2008. Each chapter explores a theme related to small town revival and provides a related tool or technique to enable small town officials to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Encouraging local small town officials to look at the economic orbit of communities in a similar manner as a town’s budget or a family’s personal wealth, examining its specific competitive advantages in terms of relative assets to those of competing communities, this book provides the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct an asset inventory and apply key asset tools to devise a strategy for overcoming the challenges and constraints imposed upon spatially-fixed communities. American Hometown Renewal is an essential primer for students studying city management, economic community development, and city planning, and will be a trusted handbook for city managers, geographers, city planners, urban or rural sociologists, political scientists, and regional microeconomists.
American Hometown Renewal
Author: Gary Mattson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317509951
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
Before the interstates, Main Street America was the small town’s commercial spine and served as the linchpin for community social solidarity. Yet, during the past three decades, a series of economic downturns has left many of the great small cities barely viable. American Hometown Renewal is the first book to combine administrative, budgetary, and economic analysis to examine the economic and fiscal plight currently facing America’s small towns. Featuring a blend of theory, applications, and case studies, it provides a comprehensive, single-source textbook covering the key issues facing small town officials in today’s uncertain economy. Written by a former public manager, university professor, and consultant to numerous small towns in the Heartland, this book demonstrates the ways in which contemporary small towns throughout the nation are facing economic challenges brought about by the financial shocks that began in 2008. Each chapter explores a theme related to small town revival and provides a related tool or technique to enable small town officials to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Encouraging local small town officials to look at the economic orbit of communities in a similar manner as a town’s budget or a family’s personal wealth, examining its specific competitive advantages in terms of relative assets to those of competing communities, this book provides the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct an asset inventory and apply key asset tools to devise a strategy for overcoming the challenges and constraints imposed upon spatially-fixed communities. American Hometown Renewal is an essential primer for students studying city management, economic community development, and city planning, and will be a trusted handbook for city managers, geographers, city planners, urban or rural sociologists, political scientists, and regional microeconomists.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317509951
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
Before the interstates, Main Street America was the small town’s commercial spine and served as the linchpin for community social solidarity. Yet, during the past three decades, a series of economic downturns has left many of the great small cities barely viable. American Hometown Renewal is the first book to combine administrative, budgetary, and economic analysis to examine the economic and fiscal plight currently facing America’s small towns. Featuring a blend of theory, applications, and case studies, it provides a comprehensive, single-source textbook covering the key issues facing small town officials in today’s uncertain economy. Written by a former public manager, university professor, and consultant to numerous small towns in the Heartland, this book demonstrates the ways in which contemporary small towns throughout the nation are facing economic challenges brought about by the financial shocks that began in 2008. Each chapter explores a theme related to small town revival and provides a related tool or technique to enable small town officials to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Encouraging local small town officials to look at the economic orbit of communities in a similar manner as a town’s budget or a family’s personal wealth, examining its specific competitive advantages in terms of relative assets to those of competing communities, this book provides the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct an asset inventory and apply key asset tools to devise a strategy for overcoming the challenges and constraints imposed upon spatially-fixed communities. American Hometown Renewal is an essential primer for students studying city management, economic community development, and city planning, and will be a trusted handbook for city managers, geographers, city planners, urban or rural sociologists, political scientists, and regional microeconomists.
Hometown Revelations
Author: Mark Usler
Publisher: Dm Enterprises Incorporated
ISBN: 9780978698706
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 95
Book Description
In Hometown Revelations, you will find many mysteries revealed! Some hometowns appear to have normal names but others have very unique stories. Most of the major cities and numerous smaller ones are included in this book where you discover how the town acquired its name. In addition, find out how your state obtained its name. Not everyone's hometown may be included but the clues and mysteries revealed about other communities may lead you to your own revelation.Did you know? There are a lot of people that call their hometown New York City. But there are also people who live in Defiance, Bliss, Hell, and Paradise! Some of our hometowns sound like dangerous places to live like Savage, Hazard, Tombstone, and Burnt Corn. There are hometowns that appear to be in the wrong locations. Why is Kansas City in Missouri and Paris in Tennessee? Are there Buffalo in New York? A few of us from Georgia live in Between.The names given to cities, towns, and states come from a number of sources. The origins of these names have evolved like the United States. Some of the names come from homesick settlers who wanted to remember their birthplaces. Other names originated from famous heroes and places that were known around the world. During the early history of the United States, some towns were named after new found freedoms. In the 1800's, many towns used Greek and Roman places or heroes. Native Indians were a major source of names. The early French, Spanish, and British explorers were also a major influence. Still, many other creative ways were found by our ancestors to describe their new homes. Emotional feelings or significant events were often used to name their new hometowns. Some names originated from coincidence, errors, or by sheer accident. There were even places named by the flip of a coin. Whatever the reason, we are all Americans and live in the greatest hometowns in the world!
Publisher: Dm Enterprises Incorporated
ISBN: 9780978698706
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 95
Book Description
In Hometown Revelations, you will find many mysteries revealed! Some hometowns appear to have normal names but others have very unique stories. Most of the major cities and numerous smaller ones are included in this book where you discover how the town acquired its name. In addition, find out how your state obtained its name. Not everyone's hometown may be included but the clues and mysteries revealed about other communities may lead you to your own revelation.Did you know? There are a lot of people that call their hometown New York City. But there are also people who live in Defiance, Bliss, Hell, and Paradise! Some of our hometowns sound like dangerous places to live like Savage, Hazard, Tombstone, and Burnt Corn. There are hometowns that appear to be in the wrong locations. Why is Kansas City in Missouri and Paris in Tennessee? Are there Buffalo in New York? A few of us from Georgia live in Between.The names given to cities, towns, and states come from a number of sources. The origins of these names have evolved like the United States. Some of the names come from homesick settlers who wanted to remember their birthplaces. Other names originated from famous heroes and places that were known around the world. During the early history of the United States, some towns were named after new found freedoms. In the 1800's, many towns used Greek and Roman places or heroes. Native Indians were a major source of names. The early French, Spanish, and British explorers were also a major influence. Still, many other creative ways were found by our ancestors to describe their new homes. Emotional feelings or significant events were often used to name their new hometowns. Some names originated from coincidence, errors, or by sheer accident. There were even places named by the flip of a coin. Whatever the reason, we are all Americans and live in the greatest hometowns in the world!
Street Saints
Author: Barbara J. Elliott
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1932031766
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Based on eight years of hands-on experience and more than 300 interviews, Street Saints is both a book of motivational stories about unsung heroes and a sociological study of the "faith factor," documenting faith-based programs that are treating social maladies in America. This book takes readers on a tour of communities and institutions in America where faith-based initiatives are making a difference. It offers inspiration, role models, and guidelines for people who would like to give back to their own communities.
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1932031766
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Based on eight years of hands-on experience and more than 300 interviews, Street Saints is both a book of motivational stories about unsung heroes and a sociological study of the "faith factor," documenting faith-based programs that are treating social maladies in America. This book takes readers on a tour of communities and institutions in America where faith-based initiatives are making a difference. It offers inspiration, role models, and guidelines for people who would like to give back to their own communities.
Our Towns
Author: James Fallows
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101871857
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101871857
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.
Last Best Hope
Author: George Packer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374603677
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021 "[George Packer's] account of America’s decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling." —William Galston, The Washington Post Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions—discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities—and how difficult they are to remedy. In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374603677
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021 "[George Packer's] account of America’s decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling." —William Galston, The Washington Post Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions—discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities—and how difficult they are to remedy. In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.
The Back Channel
Author: William Joseph Burns
Publisher:
ISBN: 0525508864
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 522
Book Description
As a distinguished and admired American diplomat of the last half century, Burns has played a central role in the most consequential diplomatic episodes of his time: from the bloodless end of the Cold War and post-Cold War relations with Putin's Russia to the secret nuclear talks with Iran. Here he recounts some of the seminal moments of his career, drawing on newly declassified cables and memos to give readers a rare, inside look at American diplomacy in action, and of the people who worked with him. The result is an powerful reminder of the enduring importance of diplomacy. -- adapted from jacket
Publisher:
ISBN: 0525508864
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 522
Book Description
As a distinguished and admired American diplomat of the last half century, Burns has played a central role in the most consequential diplomatic episodes of his time: from the bloodless end of the Cold War and post-Cold War relations with Putin's Russia to the secret nuclear talks with Iran. Here he recounts some of the seminal moments of his career, drawing on newly declassified cables and memos to give readers a rare, inside look at American diplomacy in action, and of the people who worked with him. The result is an powerful reminder of the enduring importance of diplomacy. -- adapted from jacket
See No Stranger
Author: Valarie Kaur
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0525509100
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Book Description
#1 LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE • An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken world while not breaking ourselves? Valarie Kaur—renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer—describes revolutionary love as the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation. Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey—as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see.
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0525509100
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Book Description
#1 LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE • An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken world while not breaking ourselves? Valarie Kaur—renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer—describes revolutionary love as the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation. Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey—as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see.
Design After Decline
Author: Brent D. Ryan
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812206584
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
Almost fifty years ago, America's industrial cities—Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, and others—began shedding people and jobs. Today they are littered with tens of thousands of abandoned houses, shuttered factories, and vacant lots. With population and housing losses continuing in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis, the future of neighborhoods in these places is precarious. How we will rebuild shrinking cities and what urban design vision will guide their future remain contentious and unknown. In Design After Decline, Brent D. Ryan reveals the fraught and intermittently successful efforts of architects, planners, and city officials to rebuild shrinking cities following mid-century urban renewal. With modern architecture in disrepute, federal funds scarce, and architects and planners disengaged, politicians and developers were left to pick up the pieces. In twin narratives, Ryan describes how America's two largest shrinking cities, Detroit and Philadelphia, faced the challenge of design after decline in dramatically different ways. While Detroit allowed developers to carve up the cityscape into suburban enclaves, Philadelphia brought back 1960s-style land condemnation for benevolent social purposes. Both Detroit and Philadelphia "succeeded" in rebuilding but at the cost of innovative urban design and planning. Ryan proposes that the unprecedented crisis facing these cities today requires a revival of the visionary thinking found in the best modernist urban design, tempered with the lessons gained from post-1960s community planning. Depicting the ideal shrinking city as a shifting patchwork of open and settled areas, Ryan concludes that accepting the inevitable decline and abandonment of some neighborhoods, while rebuilding others as new neighborhoods with innovative design and planning, can reignite modernism's spirit of optimism and shape a brighter future for shrinking cities and their residents.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812206584
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
Almost fifty years ago, America's industrial cities—Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, and others—began shedding people and jobs. Today they are littered with tens of thousands of abandoned houses, shuttered factories, and vacant lots. With population and housing losses continuing in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis, the future of neighborhoods in these places is precarious. How we will rebuild shrinking cities and what urban design vision will guide their future remain contentious and unknown. In Design After Decline, Brent D. Ryan reveals the fraught and intermittently successful efforts of architects, planners, and city officials to rebuild shrinking cities following mid-century urban renewal. With modern architecture in disrepute, federal funds scarce, and architects and planners disengaged, politicians and developers were left to pick up the pieces. In twin narratives, Ryan describes how America's two largest shrinking cities, Detroit and Philadelphia, faced the challenge of design after decline in dramatically different ways. While Detroit allowed developers to carve up the cityscape into suburban enclaves, Philadelphia brought back 1960s-style land condemnation for benevolent social purposes. Both Detroit and Philadelphia "succeeded" in rebuilding but at the cost of innovative urban design and planning. Ryan proposes that the unprecedented crisis facing these cities today requires a revival of the visionary thinking found in the best modernist urban design, tempered with the lessons gained from post-1960s community planning. Depicting the ideal shrinking city as a shifting patchwork of open and settled areas, Ryan concludes that accepting the inevitable decline and abandonment of some neighborhoods, while rebuilding others as new neighborhoods with innovative design and planning, can reignite modernism's spirit of optimism and shape a brighter future for shrinking cities and their residents.
Rebuilding America's Cities
Author: Paul R. Porter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351494554
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259
Book Description
A growing cooperation between the public and private sectors indicates that the tasks of redevelopment are too large and complex for either sector to accomplish alone. Some people maintain that government can do few things right; others are equally distrustful of the private sector. As used here, the private sector is considered to be all that is not government. Each of the success stories illustrated is, in part, a ""road to recovery,"" although none appear to have been influenced by a purpose that broad.Paul R. Porter and David C. Sweet present stories of progress in self-reliance that concern neighborhood and downtown recoveries, school improvement, job generation, a regained fiscal solvency, novel financing techniques, helping tenants to become homeowners, and a successful venture in self-help and tenant management in crime-infested neighborhoods. The successes stem from the diverse community roles of Yale University, a medical center, the world's largest research organization, the Clorox Company, a gas company, an insurance company, a newspaper, neighborhood and downtown organizations, city governments and two religious organizations - the Mormon Church and the tiny Church of the Savior.These stories are located throughout the United States, including Akron, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New Haven, Oakland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Springfield, Mass., Tampa, and Washington, D.C. The editors have gathered the work of professionals known in the field of urban studies: James W. Rouse, Donald E. Lasater, Rolf Goetze, Dale F. Bertsch, Joel Lieske, Eugene H. Methvin, James E. Kunde, T. Michael Smith, Robert Mier, Carol Davidow, Jay Chatterjee, June Manning Thomas, Norman Krumholz, Larry C. Ledebur, and Robert C. Holland.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351494554
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259
Book Description
A growing cooperation between the public and private sectors indicates that the tasks of redevelopment are too large and complex for either sector to accomplish alone. Some people maintain that government can do few things right; others are equally distrustful of the private sector. As used here, the private sector is considered to be all that is not government. Each of the success stories illustrated is, in part, a ""road to recovery,"" although none appear to have been influenced by a purpose that broad.Paul R. Porter and David C. Sweet present stories of progress in self-reliance that concern neighborhood and downtown recoveries, school improvement, job generation, a regained fiscal solvency, novel financing techniques, helping tenants to become homeowners, and a successful venture in self-help and tenant management in crime-infested neighborhoods. The successes stem from the diverse community roles of Yale University, a medical center, the world's largest research organization, the Clorox Company, a gas company, an insurance company, a newspaper, neighborhood and downtown organizations, city governments and two religious organizations - the Mormon Church and the tiny Church of the Savior.These stories are located throughout the United States, including Akron, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New Haven, Oakland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Springfield, Mass., Tampa, and Washington, D.C. The editors have gathered the work of professionals known in the field of urban studies: James W. Rouse, Donald E. Lasater, Rolf Goetze, Dale F. Bertsch, Joel Lieske, Eugene H. Methvin, James E. Kunde, T. Michael Smith, Robert Mier, Carol Davidow, Jay Chatterjee, June Manning Thomas, Norman Krumholz, Larry C. Ledebur, and Robert C. Holland.
American Babylon
Author: Robert O. Self
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691124868
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
A gripping portrait of black power politics and the struggle for civil rights in postwar Oakland As the birthplace of the Black Panthers and a nationwide tax revolt, California embodied a crucial motif of the postwar United States: the rise of suburbs and the decline of cities, a process in which black and white histories inextricably joined. American Babylon tells this story through Oakland and its nearby suburbs, tracing both the history of civil rights and black power politics as well as the history of suburbanization and home-owner politics. Robert Self shows that racial inequities in both New Deal and Great Society liberalism precipitated local struggles over land, jobs, taxes, and race within postwar metropolitan development. Black power and the tax revolt evolved together, in tension. American Babylon demonstrates that the history of civil rights and black liberation politics in California did not follow a southern model, but represented a long-term struggle for economic rights that began during the World War II years and continued through the rise of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s. This struggle yielded a wide-ranging and profound critique of postwar metropolitan development and its foundation of class and racial segregation. Self traces the roots of the 1978 tax revolt to the 1940s, when home owners, real estate brokers, and the federal government used racial segregation and industrial property taxes to forge a middle-class lifestyle centered on property ownership. Using the East Bay as a starting point, Robert Self gives us a richly detailed, engaging narrative that uniquely integrates the most important racial liberation struggles and class politics of postwar America.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691124868
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
A gripping portrait of black power politics and the struggle for civil rights in postwar Oakland As the birthplace of the Black Panthers and a nationwide tax revolt, California embodied a crucial motif of the postwar United States: the rise of suburbs and the decline of cities, a process in which black and white histories inextricably joined. American Babylon tells this story through Oakland and its nearby suburbs, tracing both the history of civil rights and black power politics as well as the history of suburbanization and home-owner politics. Robert Self shows that racial inequities in both New Deal and Great Society liberalism precipitated local struggles over land, jobs, taxes, and race within postwar metropolitan development. Black power and the tax revolt evolved together, in tension. American Babylon demonstrates that the history of civil rights and black liberation politics in California did not follow a southern model, but represented a long-term struggle for economic rights that began during the World War II years and continued through the rise of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s. This struggle yielded a wide-ranging and profound critique of postwar metropolitan development and its foundation of class and racial segregation. Self traces the roots of the 1978 tax revolt to the 1940s, when home owners, real estate brokers, and the federal government used racial segregation and industrial property taxes to forge a middle-class lifestyle centered on property ownership. Using the East Bay as a starting point, Robert Self gives us a richly detailed, engaging narrative that uniquely integrates the most important racial liberation struggles and class politics of postwar America.