Oxford Encyclopedia of American Urban History

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Urban History synthesizes three generations of urban historical scholarship, providing a thematic and chronological overview of American urban history from the pre-Columbian era until the beginning decades of the twenty-first century. The 92 articles collected in these two volumes describe and analyze the transformation of the United States from a simple agrarian and small-town society to a complex urban and suburban nation. Each article has been authored, peer-reviewed, and edited by scholars expert in the field, offering a reliable, historiographically informed examination of a specific subject in American urban history.

The Encyclopedia differs from previous publications by providing semi-structured, synoptic articles ranging from 6,000 to 8,000 words or more. Each article is divided into three parts: 1. an accessible narrative overview of an important issue in American urban history; 2. a brief historiographical summary of significant writers and publications on the subject; and 3. a short introduction to essential primary sources. This tri-part format allows each article to serve multiple audiences: those who simply want an informed an intelligent introduction to a given topic; those interested in identifying the leading publications on a specific subject; and those interested in performing more detailed research.

Timothy J. Gilfoyle is a professor and former chair of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches American urban and social history. He is also a past president of the Urban History Association and an associate editor of the Journal of Urban History. Gilfoyle's research focuses on the development and evolution of various 19th-century urban underworld subcultures and informal economies, exemplified by A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York (W. W. Norton, 2006); City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 (W. W. Norton,1992); and most recently The Urban Underworld in Late Nineteenth-Century New York: The Autobiography of George Appo (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2013). His other books include Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark (University of Chicago Press, 2006) and The Flash Press: Sporting Men's Weeklies in the 1840s, coauthored with Patricia Cline Cohen and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz (University of Chicago Press, 2008).

Varieties of Urbanization
Mississippian Ancient Towns and Cities, 1000-1700
Seaport Cities in North America, 1600-1800
Industry, Commerce, and Urbanization in the United States, 1790-1870
Industry, Commerce, and Urbanization in the United States, 1880-1929
Urban Exceptionalism in the American South
Company Towns in the United States
Globalization and the American City

Political Economies
Politics in Urban America before 1940
Politics in Urban America after 1945
Slavery in American Cities
The Central Business District in US Cities
Progressives and Progressivism in an Era of Reform
The Great Depression
The New Deal
American Labor and Working-class History, 1900-1945
Public Sector Unions in the United States
Public Authorities in the United States
Service Economies and the American Postindustrial City, 1950-present
Deindustrialization and the American Postindustrial City, 1950-present
Universities and Information Centers in US Cities
Tourism and the American City since 1800
Professional Team Sports in the United States

Informal Economies
Gambling in Northern US Cities
Temperance and Prohibition
Prostitutes and Prostitution in America
Commercial Sex in America after 1920
Drug Subcultures in the American City

Urban Migrations
Immigration to American Cities, 1800-1924
Immigration to American Cities, 1924-2017
Ellis Island Immigration Station
Angel Island Immigration Station
Immigration to the United States after 1945
The Great Migration and Black Urban Life in the United States, 1914-1970
The Great Migration in Context: The Chicago Experience, 1916-1918
White Internal Migration to American Cities, 1940-1970
Polish Immigration and the American Working Class
Irish Immigration and the American Working Class

Neighborhood, Community, and Space
Spatial Segregation and US Neighborhoods
Ethnicity, Ethnic Groups, and US Neighborhoods
LGBTQ Politics in America since 1945
Latino Urbanism
Native Americans and Cities
Puerto Ricans in the United States
Latino/a and African American Relations
The Asian American Movement
Japanese Resettlement in Postwar America: The Los Angeles Experience
Vietnamese Americans in Little Saigon, California

Building the Metropolis
Municipal Housing in America
Suburbanization in the United States before 1945
Urban Destruction during the American Civil War
Skyscrapers and Tall Buildings
The City Beautiful Movement
Urban Planning in the United States since 1850
Public Housing in Urban America
Housing Policy in the United States
Water and Sewers in the American City
Mass Transit in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century America
Streets, Roads, and Highways in the United States
The Automobile and the American City
Public Space in US Cities

Nature and the Environment
Parks in Urban America
Environmental and Conservation Movements in Metropolitan America
Environmental Pollution and the American City
Contagious Diseases and Public Health in the American City
Climate Change and the American City
Food in the Nineteenth-century American City
Food in the Twentieth-century American City

The Social Fabric
Religion in the American City, 1600-1900
Religion in the American City, 1900-2000
Poverty in the Modern American City
Wars on Poverty and the Building of the American Welfare State
Schools in US Cities
Nightlife in the American City
Jazz, Blues, and Ragtime in America, 1900-1945
Jazz in America after 1945
Rock and Roll
Rap Music

Violence and Disorder
Juvenile Justice in the United States
US Vagrancy Laws
Riots and Rioting in US Cities, 1800-2000
The Anti-Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles as a Reconstruction-era Event
Asian Americas and the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising
Street Gangs in the Twentieth-century American City

The Postwar and Postindustrial Metropolis
The Black Freedom Struggle in the Urban North
The Black Freedom Struggle the Urban South
The Sit-in Movement
The Sixties
Suburbanization in America after 1945
Asian American Suburban Culture since World War II
Urban Renewal
Japantown and the San Francisco Fillmore District
Zoning in Twentieth-century American Cities
Gentrification in the United States