Anthony Sutcliffe

Essays in social history

This new collection gathers together the best work in social history published in essay form in the past decade. A substantial introduction surveys the rapid growth in this field of study.

The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840-1857.

1. Commercial New York2. Strangers and Citizens3. The Trouble with Government4. Poverty5. A Rich and Growing City6. Manhattan Sruvival Machine7. The Use of Urban Space8. Escape to Suburbia9. Wealth10. Progressive City-Wicked City11. The Age of Gold12. The Trouble with Politics13. Tammanys City14. Tyranny, Tammany, and the State15. Metropolis

Essay in review

Ceri Peach, Vaughan Robinson and Susan Smith (eds.), Ethnic Segregation in Cities. (London, Croom Helm, 1981). Pp.258. £12.95. Peter Ratcliffe, Racism and Reaction: A Profile of Handsworth. (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981). Pp.xvi + 388. £12.50.

Urban history research in Germany: its development and present condition

Anyone glancing into a bookshop window in the Federal Republic of Germany today might get the impression that urban history is currently one of the most important and widely published historical disciplines. Such an impression would mislead, however. Most of these richly illustrated and expensively produced volumes have almost no academic significance. They are the product of a wave of nostalgia which certain astute publishers have managed to catch thanks to their unerring appreciation of market demand. For instance, a whole generation over the age of fifty wants to be reminded of the undamaged towns of its pre-war childhood. Post-war redevelopment, too, has had its effect, and the insecure citizens of our often featureless towns require a means of self-representation and identification. Demand for such publications has also been generated by the growing consciousness of the environment, which has made the expression ‘Heimat’ (heritage) respectable again, and strengthened the call for the conservation of a world rooted in the past. However, modern urban history is only just beginning to function as an independent specialism in the Federal Republic (and the same applies to its eastern neighbour). It has made gradual progress in the last few years, but even so, in comparison with the sustained and varied urban history research pursued in countries such as Britain and the United States of America, Germany is an underdeveloped country. In fact, the Deutsches Institut fur Urbanistik (DIFU) acknowledged as much when, as recently as April 1980, it organized a review of the field. The Federal Republics handful of specialists were invited to Berlin for a colloquium on ‘Problems in the writing of urban history’. The aim of the conference was just as much to examine the current difficulties of urban history as to stimulate further research.