The City Beautiful Movement

by William H. Wilson

Overview

Winner of the Lewis Mumford Prize from the Society for American City and Regional Planning HistoryWinner of the Outstanding Book in Architecture and Urban Planning Award from the Association of American Publishers

Critics of the turn-of-the-century's City Beautiful Movement denounced its projects—broad, tree-lined boulevards and monumental but low-lying civic buildings—as grandiose and unnecessary. In this masterful analysis, William H. Wilson sees the movement as its founders did: as an exercise in participatory politics aimed at changing the way citizens thought about cities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801849787
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1994
Series:	Creating the North American Landscape
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William H. Wilson is professor of history at the University of North Texas. His books include Coming of Age: Urban American, 1915-1945.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An outstanding piece of scholarship.
—Paul Boyer, University of Wisconsin

Paul Boyer

"An outstanding piece of scholarship."

Editorial Reviews

A major contribution to the scholarship on the history of urban America and the history of American city planning . . . [Wilson's] discussion of the goals and political reform ideology of the City Beautiful advocates is the most thoughtful and widely researched analysis of this complex subject to haveappeared.
—History

From the Publisher

A major contribution to the scholarship on the history of urban America and the history of American city planning . . . [Wilson's] discussion of the goals and political reform ideology of the City Beautiful advocates is the most thoughtful and widely researched analysis of this complex subject to haveappeared.

History

Thirteen historians bring their various specializations to the single case study of Pittsburgh, providing perspective on the city itself and on the general process of urbanization. They explore many aspects of Pittsburgh's cultural and institutional life: race, class, gender, politics, occupation, and infrastructure. Wilson (history, U. of Northern Texas) explains and defends the turn- of-the-century movement in urban design that led to wide tree-lined streets flanked by low-lying, monumental public buildings. He argues that the movement was not elitist and insensitive to the needs of city dwellers, but that it invited citizen participation and a new perspective of the landscape. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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