Urban history facts for kids

Urban history is a special part of history that looks at how cities and towns have grown and changed over time. It also studies the process of urbanization, which is when more and more people start living in cities.

This field combines ideas from many other areas. It includes social history (how people lived), architectural history (how buildings changed), urban sociology (how city societies work), urban geography (where cities are and how they spread), business history (how businesses grew in cities), and archaeology (studying old city remains). In the 1900s, historians were very interested in how cities grew and how industries changed them.

Urban history often focuses on how people moved into city areas over time. It also explores the social, political, cultural, and economic sides of city life. Many experts study "metropolises," which are very large or important cities. Smaller towns and suburbs used to get less attention. However, studying smaller cities can be easier for historians because they can use old population records to learn about everyone living there.

Stories of Cities: Urban Biographies

What is an Urban Biography?

An urban biography is like a life story of a city. These books often tell the history of a city from its beginnings to modern times. They are usually written for a general audience, not just for experts.

These stories look at many different parts of a city's life. They cover things like its local government, how it grew physically, and how it changed over time. They also explore its politics, how its population changed, its businesses, and its culture. This includes both high culture (like art and music) and popular culture (like everyday life). They also look at housing, different neighborhoods, and the many ethnic groups that live there.

Historians often focus on the biggest and most important city in a country. Geographers call this a "primate city." It is usually the nation's capital.

Examples of City Stories

Here are some examples of books that tell the life stories of cities:

• Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898 (2000)
• S. G. Checkland, The Upas Tree: Glasgow, 1875-1975 (1981)
• Geoffrey Cotterell, Amsterdam, The Life of a City (1972)
• Janet Abu-Lughod, Cairo; 1001 Years of City Victorious (1971)
• Diane E. Davis, Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century (1994)
• Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878 (1962)
• Christopher Hibbert, London, the Biography of a City (1969)
• Robert Hughes, Barcelona (1992)
• Colin Jones. Paris: Biography of a City (2004)
• Blake McKelvey. Rochester (4 vol, 1961), about Rochester NY
• Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography (2012)
• Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago (3 vol 1957), up to 1893.
• Roy Porter, London: A Social History (1998)
• Alexandra Ritchie, Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (1998)
• James Scobie, Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb (1974)
• Ronald Taylor, Berlin and its Culture: A Historical Portrait (1997), which looks at the city's literature, music, theater, painting, and decorative arts.

Historians also group cities by their location and what they were known for. For example, in the United States, early historians studied major port cities like Boston and Philadelphia. Other historians looked at port cities along rivers and coasts. Industrial cities in New England and railroad cities in the West have also been studied.

New Ways to Study City History

Focusing on Everyday People

The "new urban history" started in the 1960s. It is a part of Social history that tries to understand the "city as a process." Instead of just focusing on mayors and important leaders, these historians use numbers and data to learn about the lives of everyday people in cities.

They often look at how different social classes and ethnic groups lived together in a specific city. It is easier to follow the lives of individuals in smaller cities over many years.

Common Themes and Studies

This new approach often explores social and political changes, how different social classes formed, and tensions between racial or ethnic groups. One important early study was Stephan Thernstrom's Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (1964). This book used old census records to study Newburyport, Massachusetts, from 1850 to 1880.

This book helped spark interest in using numbers and data from sources like the census. It also encouraged looking at history from the "bottom-up," meaning from the perspective of ordinary people. It helped historians measure how much different ethnic groups were able to improve their social standing.

Other examples of this new urban history include:

• Kathleen Conzen, Immigrant Milwaukee, 1836-1860 (1976)
• David F. Crew. Town in the Ruhr: A Social History of Bochum, 1860-1914 (1986)
• Alan Dawley, Class and Community: The Industrial Revolution in Lynn (1975)
• Michael B. Katz, The People of Hamilton, Canada West (1976)
• Eric H. Monkkonen, The Dangerous Class: Crime and Poverty in Columbus Ohio 1860-1865 (1975)

Historians now see the different groups within a city as "agents" who help shape how the city develops. This way of studying cities has become very popular in Australia, where most people live in cities.

Historians also use large amounts of census data from the mid-1800s. New tools like historical GIS (which uses maps and data) are also being used.

City Culture and the Environment

How Cities Shape Culture

More recently, historians have started to study the culture of specific cities and how cities influence a country's overall culture. This helps us understand cities in new ways. An example is Carl E. Schorske's book, Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (1980), which explores the culture of Vienna at the end of the 19th century.

Cities and the Environment

Historians are also starting to connect urban history with environmental history. So far, most of the focus has been on how cities negatively affect the environment. But they are also looking at how the environment itself shaped the growth of cities.

Learning More About Urban History

Journals and Associations

The Journal of Urban History is a leading magazine that publishes articles and reviews about urban history. It has been published four times a year since 1975.

The Urban History Association was started in 1988 with 284 members. Now, it has over 400 members. This association holds conferences and gives out awards for the best books, articles, and PhD research papers in urban history.

See also

In Spanish: Historia de las ciudades para niños