The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
Interviewed by Grace Gillies American world’s fairs at the turn of the twentieth century built visions of modernity and the future that were pointedly expressed through a language of the past. In Ancient Fantasies and Modern Power: Neo-Antique Architecture at American World’s Fairs 1893-1915, Elizabeth Macaulay unpacks the context and subtext of Greco-Roman and Egyptianizing […]
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This is the sixth entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Sara Naghibizadeh In the summer of 2026, Knoxville’s Mountain View neighborhood feels emptied of life. Walking through, I had the Knoxville Auditorium & Coliseum on my right and, on my left, a parking lot stretching the length of two city […]
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This is the fifth entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Deborah Wolfson New York City likes to tilt itself towards the future—ever upwards, always remaking itself and its history. New Yorkers, too, in popular imagination, are self-styled strivers who are never satisfied without new victories. I would not as a […]
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This is the fourth entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Heather N. Jahrling White police in white helmets. Jimmy Breslin spotted them in Harlem in July 1964, as protests over the fatal police shooting of fifteen-year-old James Powell spiraled into six days of fiery disorder: “The cops were everywhere, four […]
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This is the third entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Maria Rose Francis During a community-led walk through Milwaukee’s Midtown neighborhood in the summer of 2023, Ms. Betty Glosson, Ms. Talibah Mateen-Hooper, and Prof. Portia Cobb brought an earlier landscape back into view. At one corner, Ms. Betty recalled neighborhood efforts […]
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This is the second entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Vanessa Christman I must have driven my husband insane when we first tuned into Apple TV’s The Studio. Instead of enjoying the comedic hijinks, I went heavy on the pause button to examine the fictional Continental Studios headquarters. A tour guide […]
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This is the first entry in our 10th Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Revolution.” By Sarah Daisy Amador Farmers in the Palouse, a pastoral region encompassing southeastern Washington and central Idaho, burned 11,057 acres of Kentucky bluegrass stubble after harvest on September 12, 1994. The following morning, an acute asthma attack claimed the life of […]
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This is the ninth post in our themed series, Cities at Play. By Jason Collins To this day, Eden Gardens is fondly remembered as one of the greatest cricket venues of the modern world, a reputation built on its scale, longevity, and atmosphere. The ICC lists its current seating capacity at around 68,000 and notes that […]
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This is the eighth post in our themed series, Cities at Play. By Sameer Chandavarkar Every year, Mumbai changes its rhythm—deliberately. Roads that are usually choked with traffic slow down or shut entirely as temporary pandals (elaborate festival structures housing Ganesh idols) are set up across neighborhoods. Intersections turn into gathering points where residents participate […]
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Murphy, Ryan Patrick. Teamsters Metropolis . University of Michigan Press, 2025. Reviewed by Gracie Anderson Gender history and queer history have long been concerned with the city’s role in structuring norms and identity. Ryan Patrick Murphy’s Teamsters Metropolis applies the lenses of queer and gender history to an unexpected urban subject: the million-worker boom in […]
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