City and Suburbs

Paper Summary:

The writer of this article notes that Robert Lewis, in "A City Transformed: Manufacturing Districts and Suburban Growth in Montreal, 1850-1929", and Richard Harris, in "Industry and Residence: The Decentralization of New York City, 1900-1940", deal with the phenomenon of suburbanization in two large North American cities within time frames overlapping the early 20th century. The writer points out that both authors' analyses of changes in residential settlement, industrial relocation, and the restructuring of the urban and suburban landscapes along class lines represent a radical revision of the traditional conceptual models of the processes of suburbanization. The writer maintains that both of these articles are primarily descriptive as opposed to theoretical. It is only when one considers them in terms of the article they later jointly authored - "The Geography of North American Cities and Suburbs, 1900-1950" - that one may see how explicitly their revisionist perspectives, foreshadowed in these earlier articles, have challenged prevailing theoretical models of suburbanization in North America.

Outline:
Introduction
New York and Montreal: Key Findings
The Findings in their Larger Theoretical Context
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The findings that the move to the suburbs in both Montreal and New York City during the late 19th and early 20th century was comprised of working class people represents a critical distinction between this phase of suburbanization and the more well-known later 20th century model. For example, in the 20th century settlement in the suburbs was seen as a means of escaping low-income housing. In a number of American cities, a racial dimension was added to this class distinction, as the suburbs became areas to which the blue-collar white workers and the white middle-class resettled from the inner city, which was left to the African American working class. Studies of cities such as Detroit have found that these industrial suburbs are notably "hostile" to Black settlement; a factor that adds the complications of race and ethnicity to class in explaining settlement patterns and the processes of suburbanization."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bates, Tim and Fasenfest, David. "Enforcement Mechanisms Discouraging Black-American Presence in Suburban Detroit." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 29.4(2005): 960-971.
• Harris, Richard and Lewis, Robert. "The Geography of North American Cities, 1900-1950: A New Synthesis." Journal of Urban History. 27.3(2001): 262-292.
• Harris, Richard. "Industry and Residence: The Decentralization of New York City, 1900-1940." Journal of Historical Geography. 19.2(1993): 169-190.
• Lewis, Robert. "A City Transformed: Manufacturing Districts and Suburban Growth in Montreal, 1850-1929." Journal of Historical Geography. 27.1(2001): 20-35.
• Walks, R. Alan. "The Causes of City-Suburban Political Polarization: A Canadian Case Study." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 96.2(2006): 390-414.

More papers on City and Suburbs:

• Analytical Essay # 120543 : "Cities and the Environment"
• Essay # 6223 : "City of Angels"
• Book Review # 49315 : "Essays on the New American City"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: