Small, Gritty, and Green and Beyond the Metropolis

Tumber, Catherine. Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. Cambridge, Massachusetts; The MIT Press, 2012. Ofori-Amoah, Benjamin, ed.  Beyond the Metropolis: Urban Geography as if Small Cities Mattered. Lanham, Md.; University Press of America, 2007. In Richard Florida’s recession book, The Great Reset, he makes the observation that [...]

Industrial Sunset

High, Steven. Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984. Toronto; University of Toronto Press, 2003. The emptying of the mythical heart of the United States — and the birth of the Rust Belt and Rust Belt labels — signalled the decrepitude of the heavily industrialized states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, [...]

Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown

Safford, Sean. Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt. Cambridge, Massachusetts; Harvard University Press, 2009. The title of Sean Safford’s Why your Garden Club Could not save Youngstown is not in jest.  This book truly is an attack on the Garden Club of Youngstown.  It is commonly believed that [...]

A Little More Freedom

Blocker, Jack S.  A Little More Freedom: African Americans Enter the Urban Midwest, 1860-1930.  Columbus, Ohio; The Ohio State University Press, 2008. Though the title refers to 1860 to 1930, the bulk of A Little More Freedom covers the years leading up to the Great Migration (sometimes referred to the First Great Migration from approximately [...]

High Stakes

Curry, Timothy Jon, Kent Schwirian, and Rachel A. Woldoff.  High Stakes: Big Time Sports and Downtown Redevelopment.  Columbus, Ohio; The Ohio State University Press, 2004. One of the recurrent themes spoken by developers and civic officials in Columbus as reported in High Stakes was that getting an NHL team would make the metropolis a Major [...]

The Urban Frontier

Wade, Richard C. The Urban Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790-1830. Urbana, Illinois; University of Illinois Press, 1996. [Originally published 1959]. Transmontane is a word you will learn from reading The Urban Frontier, as it is used on every other page. It means what is on the other side of the mountain. Wade’s history [...]

John Nolen and Mariemont

Rogers, Millard F. John Nolen and Mariemont: Building a New Town in Ohio. Baltimore; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. As the title suggests, John Nolen an Mariemont tells the story of the planning and development of one of Cincinnati’s premier suburbs by one of the grand masters of planning.  I recently completed Last Harvest: [...]

Main Street Blues

Davies, Richard O. Main Street Blues: The Decline of Small-Town America. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1998. There are many histories of small towns written. I will bet that there is at least one for every small town in America. Give or take a thousand. As small towns go, Camden, Ohio gets top treatment [...]

Get Urban!: The Complete Guide to City Living

Ezell, Kyle. Get Urban: The Complete Guide to City Living. Dulles, VA: Capital Books, 2004. I cannot quite make up my mind on Get Urban! Ezell is promoting city living and has written a book that tries to capture the essence of urbanity and what to look for when you do “get urban.”  I think [...]