Call for Papers: Metropole Theme Months 2025

With 2024 just about in the rear view mirror, The Metropole’s editorial staff wanted to let our readers know that we have three theme months planned for the first half of 2025. Check out our calls below and drop us a line at  themetropole@urbanhistory.org if you have a pitch for us! The City and Film […]

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Congratulations to Our 2024 Graduate Student Blogging Contest Winner!

Once again, we had a record number of entries in our graduate student blogging contest! Our 2024 theme, “Connection,” inspired submission by twelve students whose work intersects with urban history. Online publications such as The Metropole can provide an outlet for writing that allows for creativity and experimentation, both in content and how information is […]

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Latinx Entrepreneurs in Philadelphia – A Legacy of Resilience and Growth

Editor’s note: This is the fourth post in our theme for November, The Latinx City. By Stephanie Rivera-Kumar Philadelphia, one of the oldest cities in the United States, has a vibrant history shaped by immigrant contributions that continue to affect its neighborhoods and economy. In recent years, Latinx immigrants from countries such as the Dominican […]

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Creature of the Night: A Review of “Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham”

David J. Goodwin. Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023. Reviewed by Peter C. Baldwin The horror fiction of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, which sends delightful chills down the spines of his many fans, draws its power from its monsters and creepy settings, not from human characters. Lovecraft’s florid prose […]

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Chicago Americans: The City of the Second Generation

Editor’s note: This is the second post in our theme for November, The Latinx City. By Andres Villatoro A friend from graduate school recently visited Chicago for the first time ever to present at a large annual academic conference. As an international student from Santiago, Chile and a lover of cities, I was excited for […]

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The Latinx City: Overview and Bibliography

Editor’s Note: This is the first post in this month’s theme, The Latinx City By Ryan Reft If you’ve been even remotely paying attention in 2024, immigration and its impact on America has been a hot topic this year (and to be honest, nearly every election cycle since the 1990s). Granted, it’s a discussion largely […]

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Where to Start? An Urban History of the Bight of Biafra

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 Joseph Godlewski I was trained to be suspicious of origins. The search for metaphysical starting points has always seemed haunted by romantic essentialist beliefs and fraught with […]

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One Hundred Years of the Renaissance Theater and Ballroom/Casino

This piece is an entry in our Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Connections.” by Bridget Kelly What makes a site special? What must happen there for society to decide that a place, a building, a history is worth preserving? In 1991, the New York City Landmark Preservations Committee (LPC) considered these questions when determining […]

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To (Not) Get Lost in the City of Phnom Penh

This piece is an entry in our Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Connections.” by Zhiyi Wang “Everyone gets lost in Phnom Penh,” commented a Cambodian friend when we were trying to pinpoint a location on Google Maps. He is from Battambang, which along with Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are Cambodia’s largest and most […]

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