Urban Lowlands - A History of Neighborhoods, Poverty, and Planning

Interrogates the connections between a city's physical landscape and the poverty and social problems that are often concentrated at its literal lowest points. In Urban Lowlands, Steven T. Moga looks closely at the Harlem Flats in New York City, Black Bottom in Nashville, Swede Hollow in Saint Paul, and the Flats in Los Angeles, to interrogate the connections between a city's actual landscape and the poverty and social problems that are often concentrated at its literal lowest points. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective on the history of US urban development from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, Moga reveals patterns of inequitable land use, economic dispossession, and social discrimination against immigrants and minorities. In attending to the landscapes of neighborhoods typically considered slums, Moga shows how physical and policy-driven containment has shaped the lives of the urban poor, while wealth and access to resources have been historically concentrated in elevated areas-truly "the heights." Moga's innovative framework expands our understanding of how planning and economic segregation alike have molded the American city.  

About the author

Steven T. Moga is associate professor of landscape studies at Smith College.

Product details

• Authors: Steven T Moga, Steven T. Moga
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.04.2024
• EAN: 9780226833330
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83333-0
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: Historical Studies of Urban America
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Poverty & unemployment, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, United States of America, USA, Sociology & anthropology, History of the Americas, Urban communities, Sociology and anthropology, Poverty and precarity