There are perhaps a few dozen books which I frequently cite when I'm involved in discussions of subjects I find interesting. Of that few dozen I consider maybe a dozen books essential reading within their scope of interest.
When considering the development of the American Downtown, its rise, decline, and future prospects, I can't think of a more essential resource than Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950 by Robert M. Fogelson.
One thing which makes this book essential to activists who are attempting to influence the vitality and form of our cities is the extent to which it serves as a counterbalance to wishful thinking and nostalgia. And the primary means by which it accomplishes this is by maintaining its national scope through local examples as it focuses on issue after issue. It wasn't necessarily poor individual policy decisions by Detroit, or Philadelphia, or St. Louis (or Atlanta, Tampa or LA for that matter) which led to the declines. The declines were part of a powerful national tendency, which affected all cities across the country, even those few which came out of the post WWII period with reasonably functional cores. Fogelson's narrative is presented in a relentless fashion, as those policies intended to save downtown often sped up the decline, and those policies which might have at least stemmed the tide failed to be implemented.
The specific issues taken up in the book include the dispersal of residences from the core, the effort to build subways in various cities across the country, the beginning of decentralization of business, the efforts to impose height limits on buildings, the battles over onstreet parking (and the rise of the parking meter), attempts to retrofit downtown with limited access highways in order to make it easier to drive downtown(and how that actually backfired from the vantage point of many of its most vigorous supporters), the formation of the Urban Land Institute, the impact of the tenement reform movement, and the beginnings of the urban renewal programs and federally funded public housing.
I've actually read this book cover to cover more than once, in addition to using it as a reference work, and each time I read it I want to cry. And in some ways that is the value of Fogelsons' work. Since I am a person with a lifelong love of dense, rich, teeming urban life, with it's diversity of experiences and of cultures, with thousands of amenities accessable with a walk or a bus or train ride, I view it as absolutely essential that urbanists in general and New Urbanists in particular have an accurate understanding of the real manner in which the core of our great cities developed and declined. If we don't we are quite likely to produce mirror images of the mistakes of the past, rather than making sure that the cores of our cities are vital and durable for the centuries to come.
Larry,
What are the other 11 books you "frequently cite" when you're involved in discussions of subjects you find interesting?
Can you list your photo albums chronologically instead of by name? I can't keep up with which ones I've seen and which I haven't?
John
Posted by: John Massengale | July 04, 2004 at 03:02 PM
Hi, John. I'll look at reconfiguring my photo albums.
The "maybe a dozen" was a rough guess, and shifts somewhat depending on my interests. It's also subject to discovering better or more current books on these subjects, but lately they have been (by subject in no particular order):
Atlanta:
Atlanta and Environs Volumes I and II by Franklin Garrett. Covers the 1820s to the immediate post WWII period. It's a flawed work in a number of ways (I may review it at some point and explain what I mean later), but the chronological nature makes it an indipensable "first pass" resource when piecing together information about Atlanta.
Atlanta and Environs Volume III by Harold Martin. Picks up in the 50's where Garretts books left off.
Atlanta: Race Class and Urban Expansion by Larry Keating.
Necessary as a counterweight to the more uncritical "official" history of the Garrett series. Not very long, and not a comprehensive history, but a good supplement to fill in the gaps of the Garrett and Martin books.
Contesting the New South Order by Cliff Kuhn. On the face of it a narrowly focussed historical work, on a 1914 strike at Fulton Bag Mills, but it intersects with a number of my interests (southeast Atlanta, local music, local politics, and the influx of white southerners from North Georgia during the Henry Grady "New South" progressive era). I'm working on a review of this one for my blog.
Urban Issues:
Downtown by Fogelson -- See the review.
Urban Economics, Arthur O'Sullivan. The only basis I had initially for acquiring this book within its category is that GSU was using it as a text. But I refer to the book frequently. It's big value to me was in pointing out that crime isn't immune from the normal rules of economics, and that to understand most classes of crime, one must use many of the same tools used to understand any other economic activity. I'm going to reread and review this book soon.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs. I'm not really a Jacobs cultist. Every time I read her work I find small things with which to disagree. But her book was fantastically written (the whole "eyes on the street" concept would make the whole book worthwhile even without the many other insights), and broke out of the mode which seemed dominant in the 60's and 70's of viewing the study of cities as necessarily focussed on poverty, municipal insolvency, decay and despair.
Urban Habitat
A Field Guide to American Houses - McAlester
I've found this book really useful for determining within my amateur limitations just what sort of house or residential building I'm looking at.
Sports and Urbanism.
City Baseball Magic by Philip Bess has been recently edging it's way onto the list, but I only recently read it, so it's just settling in.
Sports, Jobs, and Taxes ed. by Noll and Zimbalist actually worked its way solidly onto my list rapidly. It's a collection of writings on the economic impact of sports teams and facilities on cities, and when the frequently arising discussion of a planned arena, stadium, or team move or expansion comes up, I find myself grabbing this book off the shelf.
Cemetery Preservation:
A Graveyard Preservation Primer, by Lynn Strangstad. Short, to-the-point and useful.
Cycling:
Two books by John Forester provide a starting point for virtually any aspect of cycling I'm looking at, from mechanics to riding technique to national cycling policy.
Effective Cycling covers the non policy side of cycling comprehensively (although being Forester he also advocates for his controverial aversion to seperate cycling facilities).
Bicycle Transportation is his work on cycling policy.
Computer Related
In this topic (which is my livlihood) I don't really write much, but there are a few books I often steer people towards:
The Standard C Library - Plauger
C - A Reference Manual - Harbison and Steele.
I don's use C much anymore and really don't think most people should, but it's the source of an enormous amount of the Unix and Posix idiom, and consequently these books form a good reference.
Mastering Regular Expressions, by Friedl. Regular Expressions are an essential part of serious modern systems work, and this book can serve as a fantastic core of knowledge of the subject.
Programming Perl, by Wall, Christiansen, and Schwartz. The seminal work on the most ubiquitous scripting language out there (This system we are composing these blogs on are written in Perl).
Recreational Miscellania:
Learn to Play Go -- Volumes I to III (more books in this series have been written but these cover my skill level).
by Janice Kim and Jeong Soo-hyun. A really methodical introduction to this remarkable rich Asian board game (the cliche is that one can learn the rules in an afternoon, but it takes the rest of one's life to really learn to play).
Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces - by Isao Yoshikawa. The only basis I had for getting this book is that the local Trappist monks were selling it. But it's been a really good little gold mine of ideas and insights on small scale gardening.
As I've stated this is a fluid list, but these are some which meet the criteria. One thing I'm going to ask the various lists on which I participate is "What is the definitive work on the history of the U.S. Highway system". I'm looking for something comparable to the Fogelson book.
Posted by: Larry Felton Johnson | July 04, 2004 at 05:51 PM