The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader [Hardcover]

The Modern American Metropolis: A Documentary Reader introduces the history of American cities and suburbs through a collection of original source materials that historians have long used to make sense of the urban experience.

• Carefully integrates and juxtaposes the primary sources that are at the heart of the collection
• Revisits and compares issues and themes over time
• Reveals how the history of cities and suburbs is not limited to buildings, innovation, and politics, and not confined to municipal boundaries
• Explores a wide variety of topics, including infrastructure development, electoral politics, consumer culture, battles over rights, environmental change, and the meaning of citizenship

List of Illustrations xii

Series Editors Preface xiv

Acknowledgments xvi

Source Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction Or, What Can a Wet Basement

Tell Us about Metropolitan History? 1

Part I Cities and Hinterlands in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America 27

Chapter 1 Transforming the Landscape and Its Functions 29

1 Chicagos Daily Democrat Measures the Impact of the Transport Revolution, 1852 29

2 Cyrus McCormick Markets the Virginia Reaper to the Nations Farmers, 1850 and 1851 36

3 Texans Appeal for the Removal of Native Peoples, 18581859 40

4 Hunts Merchants Magazine Discusses the Value of Slave Labor, 18551858 45

Chapter 2 Snapshots of Urban Life on the Eve of the Civil War 50

1 An Irish Immigrant Writes Home about Life in the United States, 1850 50

2 Frederick Law Olmsted Compares Northern and l3|