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In »Call Me Ishmael«, Charles Olson exclaims »SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America«. Indeed, from the start, history and identity in America have been intricately tied to issues of space: from the idea of the »city upon a hill« to the transnational (soft) power of the United States, space has always served as an important parameter of power gained or lost and of the struggles to maintain or resist it. With contributions that range from the construction of America in (European) academic discourses to children's fiction, this collection provides an extensive and insightful study of how space influences our understanding of America.
This comprehensive study offers a thematic approach to Latin America, focusing on the dynamic connections between people, places, and environments rather than on pre-defined notions about the region. The book’s well-rounded and accessible analysis includes discussions of borders and migration; transnationalism and globalization; urbanization and the material, environmental and social landscapes of cities; and the connections between economic development and political change. The authors also explore social and cultural themes such as the illegal drug trade, tourism, children, and cinema. Offering a nuanced and clear perspective, this book will be a valuable resource for all those interested in the politics, economy, and society of a rapidly globalizing continent. Contributions by: Fernando J. Bosco, J. Christopher Brown, James Craine, Altha J. Cravey, Giorgio Hadi Curti, James Hayes, Edward L. Jackiewicz, Thomas Klak, Mirek Lipinski, Regan M. Maas, Araceli Masterson-Algar, Kent Mathewson, Sarah A. Moore, Linda Quiquivix, Zia Salim, Kate Swanson, and Benjamin Timms.
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 competition 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 the archetypal story of downtown's rise and fall and offers a dynamic new story of urban development in the United States. Moving beyond conventional narratives, Alison Isenberg shows that 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, 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 clichéd 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. A Choice Oustanding Academic Title. Winner of the 2005 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Winner of the 2005 Lewis Mumford Prize for Best Book in American Planning History. Winner of the 2005 Historic Preservation Book Price from the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation. Named 2005 Honor Book from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
This collection of essays and poems examines various recent literary texts and cultural arenas in North America and the Asia and Pacific regions for what they reveal of the ongoing struggles of indigenous people and people of colour for justice and autonomy.
This comprehensive study offers a thematic approach to Latin America, focusing on the dynamic connections between people, places, and environments rather than on pre-defined notions about the region. The book s well-rounded and accessible analysis includes discussions of borders and migration; transnationalism and globalization; urbanization and the material, environmental and social landscapes of cities; and the connections between economic development and political change. The authors also explore social and cultural themes such as the illegal drug trade, tourism, children, and cinema. Offering a nuanced and clear perspective, this book will be a valuable resource for all those interested in the politics, economy, and society of a rapidly globalizing continent. Contributions by: Fernando J. Bosco, J. Christopher Brown, James Craine, Altha J. Cravey, Giorgio Hadi Curti, James Hayes, Edward L. Jackiewicz, Thomas Klak, Mirek Lipinski, Regan M. Maas, Araceli Masterson-Algar, Kent Mathewson, Sarah A. Moore, Linda Quiquivix, Zia Salim, Kate Swanson, and Benjamin Timms."
Released to mark the bicentennial of Tudor Place, this new title is the first comprehensive record of this important National Historic Landmark in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Two grand houses were under construction in the young Federal City in 1816: one the President's House, reconstructed after it was burned by the British in 1814, and the other Tudor Place, an elegant mansion rising on the heights above Georgetown. The connection between these two houses is more than temporal, as they were connected through lineage and politics for generations. The builders of Tudor Place were Thomas and Martha Parke Custis Peter, Martha Washington's granddaughter. In the 1790s George Washington had been a frequent guest at the Peters' town house when he was in the nascent Federal City, attending to its planning and selecting sites for the U.S. Capitol and the President's House. In 1817, when President James Monroe moved back into the reconstructed President's House following the fire of 1814, the Peters were completing their own grand home, Tudor Place, designed in concert with their friend, Dr. William Thornton, architect for the first U.S. Capitol Building. The White House and Tudor Place each represent the spirit and aspirations of the early Republic. Little more than two miles apart, each survives as a national architectural landmark. While the White House is perhaps the most well known building in the world, Tudor Place remained a family home until 1983 and very private, although the Peters welcomed some of the nation's foremost leaders as their guests and were themselves guests at the White House.
Placing Latin America offers a thematic approach to the study of the diverse geographies of a globalizing region. This comprehensive text focuses on the dynamic connections between people, places, and environments rather than on predefined notions about the region. The book’s well-rounded and accessible analysis includes discussions of borders and migration, transnationalism and globalization, urbanization and landscapes of cities, the connections between economic development and political change, the physical environment and human-environmental interactions, and natural resources in the context of a global economy. The authors also explore social and cultural themes such as the illegal drug trade, social movements, tourism, and children and young people. Providing a nuanced and clear perspective, this book will be an invaluable guide for all those interested in the politics, economy, and society of a rapidly changing continent.
Formal Indian education in America stretches all the way from reservation preschools to prestigious urban universities. "Power and Place" examines the issues facing Native American students as they progress through schools, colleges, and on into professions. This collection of 16 essays is at once philosophic, practical, and visionary.
Contemporary American society, with its emphasis on mobility and economic progress, all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of “place” and community. Appreciating place is essential for building the strong local communities that cultivate civic engagement, public leadership, and many of the other goods that contribute to a flourishing human life. Do we, in losing our places, lose the crucial basis for healthy and resilient individual identity, and for the cultivation of public virtues? For one can’t be a citizen without being a citizen of some place in particular; one isn’t a citizen of a motel. And if these dangers are real and present ones, are there ways that intelligent public policy can begin to address them constructively, by means of reasonable and democratic innovations that are likely to attract wide public support? Why Place Matters takes these concerns seriously, and its contributors seek to discover how, given the American people as they are, and American economic and social life as it now exists—and not as those things can be imagined to be in some utopian scheme—we can find means of fostering a richer and more sustaining way of life. The book is an anthology of essays exploring the contemporary problems of place and placelessness in American society. The book includes contributions from distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts), geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.
Examines the efforts of many different people in American history to secure equal treatment in such areas as religion, voting rights, education, housing, and employment.