The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
By Meredith Drake Reitan, MPL, PhD On February 7, 2017, the Los Angeles City Council ruled against colleagues on the Cultural Heritage Commission. After a lengthy and emotional public comment period, the Council decided not to designate Parker Center, the longtime headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department, a local historic monument. The following month, […]
Read MoreElizabeth Todd-Breland Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Chicago @EToddBreland Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I am currently finishing a book about transformations in Black politics, shifts in modes of education organizing, and the racial politics of education reform in Chicago from the 1960s to the present. I’ve always been […]
Read MoreBlogging is an increasingly necessary skillset for scholars. Blog posts are a useful format for sharing knowledge with a wide audience, from the general public to researchers within the field. Scholars are now placing greater emphasis on publication beyond academic journals and monographs—the Washington Post’s new “Made by History” vertical is a prime example—as a […]
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By Avigail Oren We can’t imagine that our loyal readers have missed the exciting news–the Call for Papers for the 2018 UHA Biennial Conference in Columbia, South Carolina dropped on Wednesday. The deadline is not until February, so you have plenty of time to pull together panels and write your proposal. In the meantime, however… […]
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With European colonialism exterting itself in Asia by the 1860s, Ho Chi Minh City, then known as Saigon and Cholon respectively, had fallen under French control. As Gwendolyn Wright and others since have noted, city building served as a central aspect of French colonialism. French leaders believed beautiful, grand cities embodied the nation’s strength, sophistication […]
Read MoreMichael J. Durfee – Niagara University – Assistant Professor https://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/author/mjdurfee/ Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? My research focuses on the substantial growth of the carceral state throughout the Crack Era, the contingency of missed opportunity for police to cooperate with grassroots anti-crack and anti-crime activists in the Bronx, and the […]
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By Avigail Oren On November 7, 1967, the citizens of Cleveland elected Carl B. Stokes mayor. Stokes became the first black mayor of a major American city, a considerable feat in a majority-white metropolis. During his two terms as mayor, from 1968-1972, Stokes represented all Clevelanders and sought to universally improve the city’s neighborhoods, while […]
Read MoreWe missed sharing a lot of great history-related stuff with you, our dear readers, during our August hiatus. Have no fear, a great round-up is here! Over at the Global Urban History Project‘s blog–our internet bffs–Noam Maggor wrote about “Brahmin Boston and the Politics of Interconnectedness” and Razak Khan about “Princely Architectural Cosmopolitanism and Urbanity […]
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For fans of Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern, Ho Chi Minh City is a familiar place. Both men have recorded numerous episodes for various television series over the years dedicated to the urban alchemy of HCMC. They laud its cuisine, marvel at its energy, and generally wallow in the boulevards and alleyways of Vietnam’s commercial […]
Read MoreTroy Hallsell PhD Candidate, Department of History The University of Memphis Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? My research explores the grassroots politics of anti-freeway activism. In 1956, federal highway administrators proposed a freeway that would run directly though Overton Park in Midtown, Memphis. Their proposal became one of Tennessee’s and […]
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The Metropole 