As historians gather their kits together to embark on the quest that is #OAH19, The Metropole would like to provide some Philadelphia-centric reading material to those travelling the highways and byways of America to reach the City of Brotherly Love.
We offer, first, a round up of our March coverage of the Philly for our Metropolis of the Month feature (MotM). Second, Alyssa Ribeiro took a peek at our initial Philadelphia bibliography and found it a bit wanting on issues such as ethnicity and social movements. She’s provided a cracker jack addition to our foray into the field, her list being particularly focused on the twentieth century. Professor Ribeiro’s recommendations are, as the kids like to say on “the twitter,” “chef’s kiss!”
March Metropolis of the Month (MotM): Philadelphia
We kicked things off with our usual overview/bibliography of the MotM, this time focusing on the rise of white, blue collar conservatism and the parallel growth of Gay Liberation in the city.
University of Pennsylvania’s Domenic Vitiello drops by to explore the politics of immigration and Philadelphia’s place as a sanctuary city
Buried Legacies: Former Landfills and Philadelphia’s Future
Temple University PhD candidate, James Cook Thajudeen discusses a sometimes maligned but absolutely critical aspect of urban living: sanitation and waste removal. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure takes on new meaning in his piece.
African American Politics in the City of Brotherly Love
It’s always good to get a peek at upcoming works, particularly when contextualized in our current political moment. DePaul historian James Wolfinger discusses both Philadelphia history in the era of a certain orange-tinged leader and the upcoming anthology of the city that he edited, featuring contributions from leading historians of Philly.
Building the Hospital City: The Redevelopment of Philadelphia General Hospital
Meds and eds has been a well publicized strategy for urban renewal in former rust belt cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The Miller Center’s Guian McKee delves into the subject to explore the ramifications of such policies and just how advantageous the public-private relationships on which these developments rest are for the city and its citizenry.
Under Two Flags: How Nancy Giddens Built Bridges between Black and Puerto Rican Neighbors
Black-Latino relations have often been portrayed as frayed and, while not untrue, it remains only part of a larger, more complex story. Through the person of Philadelphia Tribune columnist and frequent flyer Nancy Giddens, Allegheny College’s Alyssa Ribiero provides a window into mid-20th century Black-Puerto Rican relations and Giddens’ efforts to build community.
Additions to Philadelphia Bibliography courtesy of Alyssa Ribiero
Adams, Carolyn T. From the Outside In: Suburban Elites, Third-Sector Organizations, and the Reshaping of Philadelphia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Anderson, Elijah. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.
Arnau, Ariel. “The Evolution of Leadership within the Puerto Rican Community of Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 136, no. 1 (2012): 53–81.
Bauman, John F., Norman P. Hummon, and Edward K. Muller. “Public Housing, Isolation, and the Urban Underclass: Philadelphia’s Richard Allen Homes, 1941-1965.” Journal of Urban History 17, no. 3 (1991): 264–92.
Binzen, Peter. Whitetown, U.S.A. New York: Random House, 1970.
Canton, David A. Raymond Pace Alexander: A New Negro Lawyer Fights for Civil Rights in Philadelphia. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2010.
Capozzola, Christopher. “‘It Makes You Want to Believe in the Country’: Celebrating the Bicentennial in an Age of Limits.” In America in the Seventies, edited by Beth Bailey and David Farber, 29–49. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
Cutler, William W., and Howard Gillette, eds. The Divided Metropolis: Social and Spatial Dimensions of Philadelphia, 1800-1975. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Donner, Frank J. Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
Dubin, Murray. South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories, and the Melrose Diner. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
Dyson, Omari L., Kevin L. Brooks, and Judson L. Jeffries. “‘Brotherly Love Can Kill You’: The Philadelphia Branch of the Black Panther Party.” In Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party, edited by Judson L. Jeffries, 214–54. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Ellison, Elaine Krasnow. Voices from Marshall Street: Jewish Life in a Philadelphia Neighborhood, 1920-1960. Philadelphia: Camino Books, 1994.
Ershkowitz, Miriam, and Joseph Zikmund II, eds. Black Politics in Philadelphia. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
Feffer, Andrew. “The Land Belongs to the People: Reframing Urban Protest in Post-Sixties Philadelphia.” In The World the 60s Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America, edited by Van Gosse and Richard Moser, 67–99. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003.
Franklin, V. P. The Education of Black Philadelphia: The Social and Educational History of a Minority Community, 1900-1950. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979.
González, Juan D. “The Turbulent Progress of Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia.” Centro 2, no. 2 (1987): 35–41.
Goode, Judith. “Polishing the Rustbelt: Immigrants Enter a Restructuring Philadelphia.” In Newcomers in the Workplace: Immigrants and the Restructuring of the U.S. Economy, edited by Louise Lamphere, Alex Stepick, and Guillermo Grenier, 199–230. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.
Goode, Judith, and Jo Anne Schneider. Reshaping Ethnic and Racial Relations in Philadelphia: Immigrants in a Divided City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.
Griffin, Sean Patrick. Philadelphia’s ‘Black Mafia’: A Social and Political History. New York and Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
Harry, Margot. “Attention, MOVE! This Is America!” Chicago: Banner Press, 1987.
Haumann, Sebastian. “Modernism Was ‘Hollow’: The Emergence of Participatory Planning in Philadelphia, 1950-1970.” Planning Perspectives 26, no. 1 (2011): 55–73.
Johnson, Karl E. “Police-Black Community Relations in Postwar Philadelphia: Race and Criminalization in Urban Social Spaces, 1945-1960.” Journal of African American History 89, no. 2 (2004): 118–34.
Kairys, David. Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008.
Luconi, Stefano. From Paesani to White Ethnics: The Italian Experience in Philadelphia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Lukacs, John. Philadelphia: Patricians and Philistines, 1900-1950. 1981. Reprint, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2017.
McAllister, David. “Realtors and Racism in Working-Class Philadelphia, 1945-1970.” In African American Urban History Since World War II, edited by Kenneth L. Kusmer and Joe W. Trotter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Muller, Peter O., Kenneth C. Meyer, and Roman A. Cybriwsky. Metropolitan Philadelphia: A Study of Conflicts and Social Cleavages. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1976.
Naples, Nancy A. Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work, and the War on Poverty. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Nash, Gary B. Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Ribeiro, Alyssa. “Forgotten Residents Fighting Back: The Ludlow Community Association and Neighborhood Improvement in Philadelphia.” In Civil Rights and Beyond: African American and Latino/a Activism in the Twentieth-Century United States, edited by Brian D. Behnken, 172–94. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016.
Rose, Dan. Black American Street Life: South Philadelphia, 1969-1971. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
Shelton, Jon. Teacher Strike!: Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order. University of Illinois Press, 2017.
Simon, Roger D. Philadelphia: A Brief History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2017.
Sullivan, Leon H. Build Brother Build. Philadelphia: Macrae Smith Company, 1969.
Takenaka, Ayumi, and Mary Johnson Osirim, eds. Global Philadelphia: Immigrant Communities Old and New. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.
Vásquez-Hernández, Víctor. Before the Wave: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, 1910-1945. Centro Press, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, 2017.
Velázquez, José E. “Coming Full Circle: The Puerto Rican Socialist Party, U.S. Branch.” In The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora, edited by Andrés Torres and José E. Velázquez, 48–68. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
Weiler, Conrad. Philadelphia: Neighborhood, Authority, and the Urban Crisis. New York: Praeger, 1974.
Whalen, Carmen Teresa. “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia.” In The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora, edited by Andrés Torres and José E. Velázquez, 107–23. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
———. “Citizens and Workers: African Americans and Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia’s Regional Economy Since World War II.” In African American Urban History Since World War II, edited by Kenneth L. Kusmer and Joe W. Trotter, 98–122. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
———. From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.
Wherry, Frederick F. The Philadelphia Barrio: The Arts, Branding, and Neighborhood Transformation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Wilson, Kathryn E. Ethnic Renewal in Philadelphia’s Chinatown: Space, Place, and Struggle. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015.
Winch, Julie. Philadelphia’s Black Elite: Activism, Accommodation, and the Struggle for Autonomy, 1787-1848. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.
Featured image (at top): Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA, Carol M. Highsmith, between 1980 and 2006, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
