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Reviewed by:
  • Alabaster Cities: Urban U.S. since 1950
  • Carl Abbott
Alabaster Cities: Urban U.S. since 1950. By John Rennie Short. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 2006.

Avowedly intended for general readers, Alabaster Cities is a clearly organized and cleanly written account of major trends in the growth of American metropolitan areas from the decades of post-1945 prosperity to the current post-industrial era. Short identifies four general themes: economic globalization; the role of public policy; the segmentation of metropolitan regions by class, race, and government authority; and the changing character of active citizenship. These are all on target, with the last being the most original as the author develops it.

A geographer rather than historian, Short organizes most of the book as topical chapters covering downtown, suburbanization, metropolitan governance, industrial change, race, housing, and politics. The chapters begin with quick historical background, examine some key episodes of legislation and policy, and describe emerging urban patterns. Specialists will not be surprised by the examples: the Pruitt-Igoe housing project, urban renewal of Boston's West End, Baltimore's reworked waterfront, but each example is clearly and succinctly summarized. The maps and charts are crisply done and effectively used.

The author is to be commended for describing the experiences of second-level cities like Baltimore and Cleveland in addition to the expected treatment of New York and Chicago. Regional balance is a bit more of an issue. I counted the instances in which a city is used as a substantial example (being featured in a paragraph or more). Twenty-three different cities east of the Mississippi River account for thirty-seven such appearances. From west of the big river are only ten cameos by only seven cities. This tabulation does highlight one of my few concerns. Short explicitly identifies American urban history as an eastern and international story in contrast to the frontier and wilderness narrative of western history—hence a book about "alabaster cities" to contrast with hypothetical books about "purple mountain majesties" and "fruited plains." This assumption ignores the reality that the West has been the most urbanized part of the United States for more [End Page 232] than a century (and also means that the author has no truck with the problematic "Los Angeles school" of urban studies).

As a book for general readers and undergraduates, Alabaster Cities calls for comparison with alternatives. Metroburbia, USA (2008) by geographer Paul Knox is narrower in focus, more argumentative, and more detailed on new settlement patterns. Jon Teaford, The Metropolitan Revolution: The Rise of Post-Urban America (2006) is a historian's take on the same processes that interest Short. My own Urban America in the Modern Age: 1920 to the Present (2007) puts those processes in a somewhat deeper historical framework. All of the books agree on the basics, so one's choice will depend on particular audience and on individual preference for geography or history as the conceptual starting point.

Carl Abbott
Portland State University
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