James J. Connolly

Decentering Urban History Peripheral Cities in the Modern World

This essay introduces the articles collected in the special issue devoted to “decentering urban history” and considers some of their implications. For the most part, urban historians have concentrated on major cities or have at least failed to distinguish between the metropolis and smaller, more peripheral cities in meaningful ways. This essay reviews the articles in the special issue, which were first presented at the 2007 Small Cities Conference sponsored by the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University. They range across the last two centuries and consider urbanization in China, Japan, South Asia, Chile, Germany, and the United States. The essay then argues that prevailing ideas about the impact of globalization, the definition of a city, and the development of urban identities require further consideration from the perspective of peripheral cities. It concludes by offering an approach to distinguishing the experiences of these communities relative to major urban centers.

Bringing the City Back In: Space and Place in the Urban History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Edward Bellamys Looking Backward sought to understand the social consequences of industrialization by looking at a city. One of the Gilded Ages best-selling books, the Utopian novel magically transported lead character Julian West to a futuristic Boston set in the year 2000 and contrasted that ideal, cooperative world with the harsh reality of individualism-drenched, industrial Boston in 1887. Bellamys vision of a twenty-first-century city was prescient about technology: it included automation, mass communication, and swift transportation. His social predictions proved less successful. Boston in the year 2000 was populated by Victorian ladies and gentlemen and lacked the cultural variety we associate with contemporary city life.

From Political Insult to Political Theory: The Boss, the Machine, and the Pluralist City

Among fictional characters largely lost to history is Michael Mulhooly, protagonist of Rufus Shapley’s 1880 political satire, Solid for Mulhooly . Th e book began as a campaign tract, a thinly veiled attack upon Philadelphia Republican leader James McManes launched by a party rival. But reformers latched onto its caricature of a brutish, disreputable boss. Th eir enthusiasm led to republication as an antimachine novel in 1889. Th e plot traced the rise of an unlettered, corrupt Irish tough to the head of a party machine. Shapley’s tale was a warning: unless responsible citizens took action, such men would rule American cities. Th e reprint included sketches by Th omas Nast, who depicted Mulhooly as a short-haired, heavy-browed thug with a gaudy diamond on his shirt front. In case readers missed the reference, one image included a portrait of archetypal boss William Tweed with the infamous challenge, “What are you going to do about it,” hanging in the background. 1 By tying Mulhooly to Tweed, the reprint turned Mulhooly from a stand-in for