Urban Theorists, Urban Reform, and American Political Culture in the Progressive Period
Three problems in urban history can be better understood when viewed as interrelated parts of the political and intellectual climate of the Progressive age. These problems involve the development of academic urban theory during the Progressive period, the emergence at the same time of urban reform movements, and finally, concomitant changes in American political culture. Around the turn of the century, in almost every variety of writing about American cities and their governments, from popular tracts to academic tomes, one can detect a dramatic change: the metaphorical mode of urban pathology Jefferson's sores on the body politic becoming Josiah Strong's cancer-is suddenly replaced by another. In the new framework, the city itself is seen as the political and cultural cure for its own cancer. It is presented as the hope of a broader troubled society, as the crux of civilization where modern problems must be engaged and where, through triumphant engagement, American Democracy would be redeemed. This change in viewing urbanism seems to presume important shifts in ideas, values, and assumptions. Yet it has gone relatively unexplained, unless one accepts an explanation of transition from negative to positive, or pessimism to optimism, as sufficient. '