Amazon’s search for a second headquarters has sparked widespread debate over the public costs of subsidizing private real estate. Critics question whether cash-strapped and socially divided cities should be spending billions on services for expensive office and residential projects. Supporters respond that these subsidies ultimately provide cities with much-needed tax revenue by encouraging property development. […]
This morning we are briefly departing from our usual coverage on The Metropole to reflect on the intersection of pedagogy and current events. In this post, co-editor Avigail Oren comments on her experience in the classroom following the attack at Tree of Life. On Monday, October 22, I began teaching a half-semester course at Carnegie Mellon […]
It is with great regret that the Urban History Association acknowledges the passing Washington University history professor Margaret Garb. In her memory, we are running the obituary published on Dec. 20, 2018 on the Washington University website, The Source. By Liam Otten Margaret Garb, professor of history in Arts & Sciences and co-director of the […]
Klinenberg, Eric. Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. (New York, New York: Crown, 2018). 336 pp. $28. ISBN 978-1-5247-6116-5 By Jacob Bruggeman Americans today consistently hear about the differences in wealth, geography, identity and politics that divide us, but they hear rather less […]
Growing up in and around Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, one witnessed the city’s incomplete political transformation. Mayor Harold Washington’s 1983 victory propelled him to City Hall where during his brief but impactful tenure he began dismantling the Democratic machine built under Anton Cermak during the 1930s and consolidated by Richard J. Daley in […]
When the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Historical Association (AHA) announced that they would both be hosting their 2019 conferences in the capital of the Midwest, Chicago, during always balmy January, it was not surprising. The two often overlap, particularly in the convention-friendly Windy City. However, what did create shouts of joy was […]
“The best laid plans …” as the saying goes. As you hopefully remember, behind the leadership of Becky Nicolaides and Carol McKibben and in association with the UHA, this year’s AHA will feature an urban history “meet up” on Saturday, January 5, 2019. However as it so happens the initial event time coincided with a […]
By Matt Guariglia This year the New York City Police Department announced that it would be integrating a new fleet of drones into its policing procedure for large events. In 2018, the NYPD also announced that it was experimenting with a lasso that would subdue citizens during mental health crises. Even as policing becomes more […]
By Avigail Oren My best teacher this past year was the collective wisdom of the The Metropole’s many contributors. We will end 2018 with over 130 posts, totaling over 200,000 words—all of which I read, sometimes multiple times! While I learned a ton of history from our Metropolis of the Month posts, book reviews, Disciplining […]
By Edward G. Goetz I want to thank Eric Michael Rhodes for his thoughtful read of my book, The One-Way Street of Integration. The great challenge of writing the book, which Mr. Rhodes seems to have sensed in his remarks at the end of his review, was in articulating a vision for how to use […]
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