urban history

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/30/2020
  

  The Country’s Oldest Chinatown is Fighting for its Life in San Francisco

  Tourism to San Francisco has fallen by half since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and tourist spending has declined even further, impacting many of Chinatown's businesses as well as its social life. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/30/2020
  

  Why New York’s Mob Mythology Endures

  by Adam Gopnik

  "Generally, in Mob stories, the cute bits are not real, and the real bits are not cute. Given that grim truth, there’s something to be said for just shutting your eyes and repeating the cute bits." Some new books on the Mafia unfortunately follow the pattern. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/16/2020
  

  The Cities Central to Fraud Conspiracy Theories Didn’t Cost Trump the Election

  by Emily Badger

  Trump's focus on Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee reflect the attempt to mobilize longstanding suspicion by many white Americans of cities and Black voters, not any significant changes in the vote in those cities since the last election.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/19/2020
  

  What Did Europe Smell Like Centuries Ago? Historians Set Out to Recreate Lost Scents

  An ambitious project seeks to make museums a more immersive experience by using big data to mine primary sources for references to scent and use chemistry and perfumerie to recreate the mix of odors characteristic of a time and place. 

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  11/17/2020
  

  How Suburbs Swung the 2020 Election

  by Richard Florida, Marie Patino and Rachel Dottle

  The noted urban theorist points out that assumptions about suburban voters haven't kept up with the changing demographic realities of America's suburbs, which house a majority of the population and differ from each other as much as they do from central cities. 

• 
• SOURCE: Rolling Stone
  11/19/2020
  

  The Untouchables: An Investigation into the Violence of the Chicago Police

  by Paul Solotaroff

  Historian Simon Balto is among experts who place the Chicago Police Department's treatment of the city's Black communities in historical perspective. 

• 
• SOURCE: Places Journal
  11/15/2020
  

  Reservoir: Nature, Culture, Infrastructure

  by Luc Sante

  A four-part series of essays and photography examines the creation, maintenance and consequences of the reservoirs constructed to supply water to New York City, including the complex divisions and connections among urban and rural communities. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Historical Society
  11/18/2020
  

  NYHS Fellowships for 2021-22 Deadlines Begin in January

  The New York Historical Society reminds potential candidates that the deadline for most of its fellowships for the 2021-22 academic year is January 15. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  11/16/2020
  

  Preexisting Conditions: What 2020 Reveals About Our Urban Future

  by Thomas J. Sugrue

  Crisis Cities is a public symposium on the 2020 crises and their impact on urban life, co-organized by Public Books and the NYU Cities Collaborative. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  11/7/2020
  

  Georgia’s Political Shift – a Tale of Urban and Suburban Change

  by Jan Nijman

  If Georgia is demographically and politically becoming unlike neighboring Republican strongholds like Alabama and Tennessee, it has, in some respects, moved in a similar direction as Arizona, where the two major metropolitan regions of Phoenix and Tucson make up over 80% of the state’s population, and where Democrats have improved their standing in recent years.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/5/2020
  

  Watch This 1897 Snowball Fight for a Jolt of Pure Joy

  The footage was captured in Lyon, in 1897, by the Lumière brothers, who were among the world’s first filmmakers. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Baffler
  11/3/2020
  

  Trumpania, U.S.A.: Making Federal Buildings Fascist Again

  by Ed Simon

  Trump's obsession with establishing neoclassical architecture as the default style for federal buildings echoes the delusional plan of Adolf Hitler to rebuild bombed Berlin in a monumental style purged of "decadent" modernism. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/nyregion/nyc-vo
  

  Inside Decades of Nepotism and Bungling at the N.Y.C. Elections Board

  “I expect the B.O.E. to pull this off — there’s no other option. It’s the most important election of our lifetime,” said Scott Stringer, the city comptroller. “But we shouldn’t have to hold our breath because of their gross incompetence.”

• 
• SOURCE: Reuters
  10/19/2020
  

  'Slavery and the City' Tour Sheds Light on London's Dark Past

  An organization advocating for the teaching of Black history in British schools has organized walking tours demonstrating the degree to which the city's financial and political institutions were tied to slavery. 

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• SOURCE: Dumbarton Oaks Library
  10/19/2020
  

  Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City (Virtual Lecture, 11/12/2020)

  Urban historian A. K. Sandoval-Strausz discusses the impact of Latino immigrants on revived urban centers in the late 20th century, sponsored by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  10/13/2020
  

  A Scholar of American Doom Doesn’t See How Capitalism Can Fix This Crisis

  "There are probably a billion and a half people, maybe more, maybe 2 billion, in the informal working class who have simply been triaged already in advance. So the fate of a very large minority of humanity has been determined now."

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• SOURCE: The Metropole (Urban History Association)
  10/15/2020
  

  UHA Announces Award Winners

  The Urban History Association announces its annual awards for best book, best journal article, and best dissertation.

• 
• SOURCE: Orange County Register
  10/9/2020
  

  CSUF Professor is Digitally Mapping the History of Gay Spaces in America

  A new digital project by Eric Gonzaba and Amanda Regan maps out places listed in gay travel guides from the 1960s to the present, giving new insight into how gay people outside of tolerant cities created social spaces. 

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• SOURCE: The Metropole (Urban History Association)
  10/13/2020
  

  “Where The Waters Reflect The Clouds”: Examining Minnesota’s Indigenous History

  by Katrina Phillips

  "Recent events have forced Minneapolitans and Minnesotans to reckon with the state’s treatment of historically excluded populations. For the original inhabitants of what’s now Minneapolis, though, resistance and activism are nothing new."

• 
• 10/11/2020
  

  Paris, City of Dreams: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann and the Creation of Paris

  by Jeff Roquen

  Nothing can compare to a visit to Paris, but until international travel resumes, readers can learn how the modern city was built through Mary McAulliffe's book.