The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
Editor’s note: This post is part of our theme for March 2023, Science City, an exploration of the ways cities and science have interacted over time and around the world. By Vincent Femia Simon Newcomb often arose from his bed in the middle of the night to walk two miles to the Naval Observatory grounds. […]
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by Josh Levy In 1968 the St. Louis Health Division determined that around 70 percent of the rat bites reported in the city came from the same corridor, a roughly two-mile strip of predominately Black neighborhoods stretching west from downtown, between Delmar Boulevard and Natural Bridge Road.[1] The same year Barry Commoner, founder of the […]
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Editor’s note: This is the eight and final post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Gwendolyn Lockman Butte, Montana, is currently known for its biggest eyesore and toxic waste site: the Berkeley Pit. It is part of one of the largest […]
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Editor’s note: This is the seventh post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Adrián Lerner Great rivers can seem capricious. In the Amazon rainforest, home to the Earth’s most powerful riverine system, river shifts can radically transform vast expanses in a […]
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Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Brandon Ward Mildred Smith was fed up with bulldozers in 1966. She had twice been forced out of homes to accommodate urban renewal developments in Detroit, and officials […]
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Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Amanda K. Philips de Lucas Regulating Urban Runoff Presently, cities across the United States battle a microscopic foe. The particulate matter of urban existence, during wet weather events, […]
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Editor’s note: This is the fourth post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Erika M. Kitzmiller and Akira Drake Rodriguez The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred national conversations about the substandard conditions in our nation’s public schools. Research shows that indoor air […]
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Editor’s note: This is the third post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Claire Campbell When the COVID-19 pandemic closed in, almost two years ago now, it threw our usual academic routines and practices into disarray. Classes “pivoted” to asynchronous, online […]
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Editor’s note: This is the second post in our theme for January 2022, Urban Environmentalism. Additional entries can be seen at the end of this article. By Clarence Hatton Throughout the twentieth century in North America, the material presence of energy has tended to disappear gradually from cities. Following evolutions in transport technology and changes […]
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Editor’s note: We kick off our January 2022 theme month on Urban Environmentalism with an exploration of how opposition to interstate highway construction through Overton Park in Memphis, Tennessee, provides a window into the nation’s development of environmental law. It is followed by a bibliography on urban environmentalism. “We stand now where two roads diverge. […]
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The Metropole 