America's Undeclared War: What's Killing Our Cities and how We Can Stop itHarcourt, 2001 - 353 pages "I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man," wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1800, sounding a note that has echoed throughout American history. In this bracing reexamination, Daniel Lazare traces the progress of America's unwavering war on its cities and looks at the profound consequences. From Jefferson through Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt to the present, we have labored to wither our cities, simultaneously fouling our air and our landscape, depleting our energy resources to feed our automobiles and neglecting any form of community other than hollow, homogenous suburbs. And yet the average American has a smaller share of the country's wealth than the average European and less opportunity to improve his or her lot. Provocative and enlightening, America's Undeclared War exposes a prejudice both fundamental and destructive to American culture. With a mordant wit and a refreshing clarity, Lazare offers a vision that can re-invigorate us, our communities, and our future. |
Contents
The City the Individual and the Nation | 1 |
The First Urban Crisis | 27 |
The Second Urban Crisis 557 | 57 |
Copyright | |
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American Cities antiurban auto automobile Boston Cambridge capitalism cars century Chicago congestion Constitution consumption costs crowded Culture de-urbanization decades declared democracy democratic driving economic environmental factory farmers federal force Ford Fordist freedom genuine progress indicator global warming growing growth Hamilton Henry Ford highway home owners housing Ibid immigrants increasingly individual industrial Jacobs Jane Jacobs Jefferson Jeffersonian labor less levels Lewis Mumford live Lower East Side Macmillan maglev Magnificent Ambersons means meant Mein Kampf ment middle-class miles million mobility modern motor vehicles motorists Mumford neighborhoods parking percent planners political population populist Preface to Politics Press problem progressive Puritan rail railroads reformers republic Republican result Revolution Riis rising Shawmut Peninsula slum social society streets subsidies suburban suburbs things Thomas Jefferson tion town traffic transportation turn United workers working-class World York