Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest (Midwestern History &)

During the 1880s and '90s, the rise of manufacturing, the first soaring skyscrapers, new symphony orchestras and art museums, and winning baseball teams all heralded the midwestern city's coming of age. In Cities of the Heartland, Jon C. Teaford chronicles the development of these cities of the industrial Midwest as they challenged the urban supremacy of the East. The antebellum growth of Cincinnati to Queen City status was followed by its eclipse, as St. Louis and then Chicago developed into industrial and cultural centers. The early years of the twentieth century marked the heyday of the midwestern city. Automobile production made Detroit a boomtown, and automobile-related industries enriched communities throughout the heartland. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School of architects asserted the Midwest's aesthetic independence, and Sherwood Anderson and Carl Sandburg helped establish Chicago as a literary mecca. At the same time, Jane Addams was making the Illinois metropolis an urban laboratory for experiments in social justice. During the second quarter of the twentieth century, emerging Sunbelt cities began to rob the heartland of its distinction as a boom area. In the last half of the century, however, midwestern cities have suffered some of their most trying times. With the 1970s and '80s came signs of age and obsolescence; the heartland had become the ""rust belt."" Teaford examines the complex ""heartland consciousness"" of the industrial Midwest through boom and bust. Geographically, economically, and culturally, the midwestern city is ""a legitimate subspecies of urban life.""