Historians have largely ignored the western city; although a number
of specialized studies have appeared in recent years, this volume
is the first to assess the importance of the urban frontier in
broad fashion. Lawrence H. Larsen studies the process of
urbanization as it occurred in twenty-four major frontier towns.
Cities examined are Kansas City, St. Joseph, Lincoln, Omaha,
Atchison, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Topeka, Austin, Dallas, Galveston,
Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Leadville, Salt Lake city, Virginia
City, Portland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco,
San Jose, and Stockton. Larsen bases his analysis of western cities
and their problems on social statistics obtained from the 1880
United States Census. This census is particularly important because
it represents the first time that the federal government regarded
the United States as an urban nation. The author is the first
scholar to do a comprehensive investigation of this important
source. This volume gives an accurate portrayal of western urban
life. Here are promoters and urban planners crowding as many lots
as possible into tracts in the middle of vast, uninhabited valleys.
Here are streets clogged with filth because of inadequate
sanitation systems; people crowded together in packed quarters with
only fledgling police and fire services. Here, too, is the advance
of nineteenth-century technology: gaslights, telephones,
interurbans. Most important, this study dispels the misconceptions
concerning the process of exploration, settlement, and growth of
the urban west. City building in the American West, despite popular
mythology, was not a response to geographic or climatic conditions.
It was the extension of a process perfected earlier, the promotion
and building of sites-no matter how undesirable-into successful
localities. Uncontrolled capitalism led to disorderly development
that reflected the abilities of individual entrepreneurs rather
than most other factors. The result was the establishment of a
society that mirrored and made the same mistakes as those made
earlier in the rest of the country.
General
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