The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985

Creating the North American Landscape

by Jon C. Teaford

Describes the attempts of twelve central cities to revitalize themselves, and discusses trends in urban poliitcs and planning

Genres: Urban, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

About the author

Jon C. Teaford is Professor Emeritus in the department of history at Purdue University.

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of post-World War II American cities.

Teaford challenges a lot of assumptions about revitalization efforts that have become part of the conventional wisdom and that unfortunately still shape the way urban projects are planned.

For one he shows that the supposed flood of federal money for "Urban Renewal" contained the 1949 Housing Act never materialized, and that most renewal activities involving eminent domain and site clearance were paid for and conducted by local cities at the behest of local interests even while federal money was on the table.

He also shows that the assumption that post-war cities threw all their money into highways and forsook transit is just plain wrong. In most of 12 cities Teaford focuses on here, transit bond issues were often larger than highway bond issues throughout the 1950s and early 60s.

And he shows that from the very inauguration of these programs there were oft-expressed concerns about displacement, and city governments acted to ameliorate the problems associated with them.

This book's pages are occasionally filled with tables that deserve more anecdote and elaboration, but there is no other book out there that will give you a clearer picture of what happened to American cities during their darkest era.