The Unheralded Triumph: City Government in America, 1870-1900 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

History

Teaford, Professor Jon C.

Americas

The Johns Hopkins University Press

In the late 19th century, the British observer James Bryce pronounced city government "the one conspicuous failure of the United States." In this book, Jon Teaford sets out to refute this statement, arguing that city government in fact successfully met the challenges posed by growth and an increasingly diversifying population. To prove this, he examines the various aspects of city government - the municipal legislatures, the executive offices, the state governments, and the relationship between the public and private sectors - and compares them to their contemporary counterparts in western and central Europe. As Teaford demonstrates, the various social groups involved in municipal government each had a different view of what city government should do, and that each group played a role within city government. The executive branch and commissions belonged to members of the upper middle class, with native Protestant businessmen or professionals occupying the mayor's office. The municipal legislature - the board of alderman or the city council - was composed of small retailers, many of whom were recent immigrants. Each group received a share of power (though the middle class typically received more than the poorer, less empowered members of the populace) and was able to accomplish most of their basic agendas, especially within the flexible structure of state legislative control. As a system of compromise, though, it failed to completely satisfy any one group, which led to much criticism of municipal government as a whole. While Teaford's interpretation of Bryce's statement is open to question, the work that he based on it has since defined our understanding of local government in Gilded Age America. Though dry reading, this book rewards reading for anyone seeking to understand the questions of municipal government at that time, as well as how immigrants gained a voice in their communities - issues that very similar to the ones we face today.

The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality (The American Moment)

The second edition of this highly acclaimed book brings the story of urban America upto date through the early 1990s, with an analysis of recent attempts to revive aging central cities and a look at a new form of development known as technoburbs or edge cities.

The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 (Creating the North American Landscape)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The years shortly after the end of World War II saw the beginnings of a new kind of community that blended the characteristics of suburbia with those of the central city. Over the decades these "edge cities" have become permanent features of the regional landscape. In Post-Suburbia, historian Jon Teaford charts the emergence of these areas and explains why and how they developed. 
Teaford begins by describing the adaptation of traditional units of government to the ideals and demands of the changing world along the metropolitan fringe. He shows how these post-suburban municipalities had to fashion a government that perpetuated the ideals of small-scale village life and yet, at the same time, provided for a large tax base to pay for needed municipal services. To tell this story, Teaford follows six counties that were among the pioneers of the post-suburban world: Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York; Oakland County, Michigan; DuPage County, Illinois; Saint Louis County, Missouri; and Orange County, California. 
Although county governments took on new coordinating functions, Teaford concludes, the many municipalities along the metropolitan fringe continued to retain their independence and authority. Underlying this balance of power was the persistent adherence to the long-standing suburban tradition of grassroots rule. Despite changes in the economy and appearance of the metropolitan fringe, this ideology retained its appeal among post-suburban voters, who rebelled at the prospect of thorough centralization of authority. Thus the fringe may have appeared post-suburban, but traditional suburban attitudes continued to influence the course of governmental development.

Post-Suburbia: Government and Politics in the Edge Cities

The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

In The Rise of the States, noted urban historian Jon C. Teaford explores the development of state government in the United States from the end of the nineteenth century to the so-called renaissance of states at the end of the twentieth. Arguing that state governments were not lethargic backwaters that suddenly stirred to life in the 1980s, Teaford shows instead how state governments were continually adapting and expanding throughout the past century. While previous historical scholarship focused on the states, if at all, as retrograde relics of simpler times, Teaford describes how states actively assumed new responsibilities, developed new sources of revenue, and created new institutions.Teaford examines the evolution of the structure, function, and finances of state government during the Progressive Era, the 1920s, the Great Depression, the post--World War II years, and the post--reapportionment era beginning in the late 1960s. State governments, he explains, played an active role not only in the creation, governance, and management of the political units that made up the state but also in dealing with the growth of business, industries, and education. Not all states chose the same solutions to common problems. For Teaford, the diversity of responses points to the growing vitality and maturity of state governments as the twentieth century unfolded.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Teaford, Professor Jon C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Teaford, Professor Jon C.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Teaford, Professor Jon C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Unheralded Triumph: City Government in America, 1870-1900 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

The Unheralded Triumph: City Government in America, 1870-1900 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality (The American Moment)

The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality (The American Moment)

The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 (Creating the North American Landscape)

The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality (The American Moment)

Post-Suburbia: Government and Politics in the Edge Cities

The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)