The American Metropolis - Image and Inspiration (Paperback)

The complexities of the American metropolis have turned out to be pre-eminently suited for interdisciplinary research. Thanks to an ongoing set of changes in research approach and method, the past twenty years have been particularly fruitful for the field of urban studies. "Meta-narratives" have given way to fragmentation, and fixed notions of disciplinarity have been challenged by new sub-cultural paradigms. The contributions in this volume map the main elements of the American urban experience from the late nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries, offering a multidisciplinary profile of their development, representation, and transatlantic impact. Sometimes the approach is traditional, fitting into the paradigms of urban corruption or dynamic modernity; but more often, the authors apply new approaches, focussing on gender, race, class, representation or the construction of social identities. Together the articles in this volume reflect the latest scholarship in the broad field of urban studies.