What do you think?
Rate this book
The Urban Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790-1830
When The Urban Frontier was first published it roused attention because it held that settlers made a concerted effort to bring established institutions and ways to their new country. This differed markedly from the then-dominant Turnerian hypothesis that a culture's identity and behavior was determined by its history and experience in a particular social and physical environment. The Urban Frontier is still considered one of the most important books in urban history. This printing of the now-classic Wade volume features a new introduction by Zane L. Miller.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
44 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 30, 2017
This intense, detailed look at early urban life in the West demonstrates how brute archival grunt work can help to summon the image and flavor of a different time and place. In this book, Richard Wade uses city council minutes, state legislative journals, local newspapers, city directories, travelers reporters, and amateur histories to explain the growth of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis.
Each town had their own specialities. Lexington, Kentucky at first became the largest town West of the Appalachia, supplying cloth, hemp and supplies for settlers heading further West. Its Transylvania University became the axis mundi of Western medical and legal knowledge, educating six senators and numerous prominent figures. Yet the coming of the first steamboat, the Enterprise, to the portage of Louisville, Kentucky (or Falls City) in 1815, meant landlocked Lexington was bound to fall. Pittsburgh too (or Iron City), also famous for "Pittsburgh glass," had trouble competing after 1815, when steamboats had trouble maneuvering that far upstream the Ohio, and after the end of the war with Britain flooded the West with European manufactured goods. Cincinnati for a time, at almost 25,000 people by 1830, became the biggest town of the region, marketing goods to new Ohio and Indiana settlers, and making steamboats for the trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Meanwhile, St. Louis, under the able leadership of Mayor William Lane Carr, and with the political power of local son Thomas Hart Benton, managed to force the U.S. to end its federal "factory" trading system with the Indians in 1822, making the town the entrepot for the mountain fur traders, as well as for local lead mining and manufacturing.
The best parts of the book, though, are the little stories about how these towns managing themselves. Lexington in 1812 became concerned about night crime, and paid for the first public lighting system in the West, 20 lamps. The next year the town also promised to pay for the oil of any private lamps on the street, though many residents there and elsewhere were concerned that criminals just tended to break them at night. Yet this concern about "crime" also emerged as part of the overall concern about "Negros" in Southern urban areas. Southern towns like Lexington and Louisville, where up to 1/3 of the populations were black, were the first to establish night watches (from 1796 in Lexington) and general police forces (in 1813 in Lexington, with Louisville coming soon after, with help from private subscriptions). These usually emerged after complaints about "large assemblages of Negroes." Meanwhile, cities like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati at the time only established temporary patrols in the wake of crime waves.
States also exerted tight control over these towns. Louisville at first was not allowed to raise more than 25 British pounds for all its city functions, later risen to $200 then $800 then $2000, then $6000. The state also limited total borrowing amounts of the city, or later total "mills" of taxes on property values (say $1 per $100). Most cities, in consequence, raised taxes on local licenses (especially for plays, up to $10 per performance), or by renting out their market stalls in elaborate public market houses (meanwhile heavily punishing "forestalling" or selling outside the market, for obvious reasons).
There are lots of little insights into urban life, politics, and economics in this book. Sometimes it's repetitive or tedious, but overall it's a surprisingly enjoyable read.
Each town had their own specialities. Lexington, Kentucky at first became the largest town West of the Appalachia, supplying cloth, hemp and supplies for settlers heading further West. Its Transylvania University became the axis mundi of Western medical and legal knowledge, educating six senators and numerous prominent figures. Yet the coming of the first steamboat, the Enterprise, to the portage of Louisville, Kentucky (or Falls City) in 1815, meant landlocked Lexington was bound to fall. Pittsburgh too (or Iron City), also famous for "Pittsburgh glass," had trouble competing after 1815, when steamboats had trouble maneuvering that far upstream the Ohio, and after the end of the war with Britain flooded the West with European manufactured goods. Cincinnati for a time, at almost 25,000 people by 1830, became the biggest town of the region, marketing goods to new Ohio and Indiana settlers, and making steamboats for the trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Meanwhile, St. Louis, under the able leadership of Mayor William Lane Carr, and with the political power of local son Thomas Hart Benton, managed to force the U.S. to end its federal "factory" trading system with the Indians in 1822, making the town the entrepot for the mountain fur traders, as well as for local lead mining and manufacturing.
The best parts of the book, though, are the little stories about how these towns managing themselves. Lexington in 1812 became concerned about night crime, and paid for the first public lighting system in the West, 20 lamps. The next year the town also promised to pay for the oil of any private lamps on the street, though many residents there and elsewhere were concerned that criminals just tended to break them at night. Yet this concern about "crime" also emerged as part of the overall concern about "Negros" in Southern urban areas. Southern towns like Lexington and Louisville, where up to 1/3 of the populations were black, were the first to establish night watches (from 1796 in Lexington) and general police forces (in 1813 in Lexington, with Louisville coming soon after, with help from private subscriptions). These usually emerged after complaints about "large assemblages of Negroes." Meanwhile, cities like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati at the time only established temporary patrols in the wake of crime waves.
States also exerted tight control over these towns. Louisville at first was not allowed to raise more than 25 British pounds for all its city functions, later risen to $200 then $800 then $2000, then $6000. The state also limited total borrowing amounts of the city, or later total "mills" of taxes on property values (say $1 per $100). Most cities, in consequence, raised taxes on local licenses (especially for plays, up to $10 per performance), or by renting out their market stalls in elaborate public market houses (meanwhile heavily punishing "forestalling" or selling outside the market, for obvious reasons).
There are lots of little insights into urban life, politics, and economics in this book. Sometimes it's repetitive or tedious, but overall it's a surprisingly enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review