The Limits of Power
Great Fires and the Process of City Growth in America

This book examines the rebuildings of Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore following great fires.

Christine Meisner Rosen (Author)

9780521545709, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 December 2003

408 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.632 kg

Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore all suffered terrible fires in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Residents of these cities agreed that the destruction caused by the fires provided them with a special opportunity to improve their inadequately built cities. This book examines these rebuildings, using each to examine in close detail the process of city growth. The massive population growth and economic expansion of the nineteenth century necessitated that every aspect of the urban environment be redeveloped. Yet, at virtually every stage of city growth, the achievement of environmental adaptation lagged significantly behind the need for change. The innovative features of this book will make it useful to all readers interested in city growth. By drawing on several fields of the social sciences, the author develops a conceptual framework for explaining the barriers to environmental improvement; and through the historical narrative, the usefulness of this framework is demonstrated.

List of figures and tables
Acknowledgments
Part I. The Conceptual Framework: 1. Introduction
2. The barriers to structural improvement
3. The barriers to infrastructural improvement
4. The barriers to spatial change
Part II. Three Case Studies: 5. Theory and narrative history
6. The rebuilding of Chicago
7. The rebuilding of Boston
8. The rebuilding of Baltimore
Part III. Conclusion: 9. Power in the city
Notes
Sources of illustrations
Index.

Subject Areas: Urban & municipal planning [RPC]