The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
Inga Gudmundsson McGuire writes about how discovering that her ancestor was a Pittsburgh architect inspired her to learn more about him and ensure that his memory and legacy are not forgotten in the eighth entry in our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest. To see all entries from this year’s contest check out our round up […]
Read More
The seventh entry in this year’s Graduate Student Blogging Contest is by Bridget Laramie Kelly, who won last year’s blogging contest. In this year’s entry, she writes about how a historic Black suburb was perceived by wealthier white residents as a “stumbling block” in the way of protecting and increasing property values. To see all […]
Read More
The theme for our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest is “Stumble.” Our sixth entrant, Katelin Penner, discusses how leaders in real estate and finance forced New York City government to stumble into a relationship with them that has led the city to subsidize private development projects while reducing public services that support working-class residents. To […]
Read More
By David S. Rotenstein “Decatur Day is part of history. It’s a part of Black history. It’s a part of the Black culture,” Chevelle Eberhart-Lee told me in a recent interview. “And if this day discontinues, it’s like erasing a part of history.” Eberhart-Lee’s family has been in Decatur for more than a century. Her […]
Read More
For our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest, we asked for stories about projects that faced “stumbling blocks.” There were a multitude of them placed in the path of Mabel E. Macomber, a Progressive Era playground advocate, written about by Alexandra Miller in our fifth entry. To see all entries from this year’s contest check out […]
Read More
Our fourth author in the 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest, Allie Goodman, describes the experience of a young woman and her family “stumbling through” efforts to obtain assistance provided by a settlement house but subject to conditions, including surveillance and extralegal work agreements. To see all entries from this year’s contest check out our round […]
Read More
The third entry in our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest is by Julie Haltom. She writes about the myriad of stumbling blocks faced by mid-twentieth-century homesteaders in Southern California’s deserts, and the short- and long-term ramifications of the Bureau of Land Management’s Small Tract Lease program. To see all entries from this year’s contest check […]
Read More
This second entry in our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest, in which we challenged authors to write about instances where city initiatives may have “Stumbled,” is by Benjamin J. Young. He writes about the failed effort of city planners to enact zoning regulations for churches in 1950s Dallas, when faced with the nascent political clout […]
Read More
Welcome to the first entry in our 2023 Graduate Student Blogging Contest! Our theme this year is “Stumble.” Aimée Plukker studies the history of tourism, and in this essay considers what tourists are and are not supposed to stumble across, and how cities treat welcome and unwelcome visitors. To see all entries from this year’s […]
Read More
We had an amazing response to our call for submissions to the Seventh Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest. Our theme this year, Stumble, resonated with nine scholars, who embraced our challenge to write about efforts in urbanism that have stumbled and fallen; times when a stumbling block was overcome to implement a project or initiative; […]
Read More
The Metropole 