The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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; […]
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By Lawrence T. Brown In his critical essay “The Tyranny of the Map: Rethinking Redlining,” historian Robert Gioielli asserted that many people have developed a distorted view of the Residential Security Maps drafted by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC). Gioielli warned that HOLC maps often obscure the role of local actors in drafting and enforcing […]
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By William Gourlay In February 1923, following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the founders of modern Turkey assembled to formulate their next steps. Mustafa Kemal, the leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement that had recently defeated an invading Greek force, delivered the opening address at a “national conference” in the Aegean port city of […]
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The Metropole Bookshelf is an opportunity for authors of forthcoming or recently published books to let the UHA community know about their new work in the field. By Gordon Mantler In the winter of 1983, civil rights veteran and activist Al Raby wrote “The Meaning of Harold Washington’s Campaign,” an essay in which he attempted […]
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Begun initially as a blog in 2015, before expanding to include photographs, maps, and other historical artifacts, Building the Black Press explores the publishing plants, corporate offices, and production spaces used by Black periodicals and their contributors from the nineteenth century to the present day. It highlights why Black press buildings matter—as sites of historic […]
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Picturing Urban Renewal is a history of urban renewal from the bottom up. The urban renewal story typically is told from the perspective of politicians and urban planners. This website gives voice to displaced residents and business owners, community activists, reporters, gentrifiers, and construction workers, as well as to politicians and planners. The goal of […]
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The original The Valley of the Shadow website launched thirty years ago and is often cited as among the first digital humanities projects on the web. Two communities in the Great Valley, one in the North and one in the South, are documented in a database of public records, newspapers, correspondence, images, maps, and other […]
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