The Corporate City

The American City as a Political Entity, 1800-1850

Leonard P. Curry

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN: 9780313302770
• eBook ISBN: 9780313029899
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

This book begins the comparative study of U.S. urban development during the first half of the 19th century. Breathtaking in its comprehensiveness, its survey and comparisons of early urban politics is without parallel. The study is based on a thorough examination of fifteen cities—Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Charleston, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. Louis, and Washington. This group of cities—the fifteen largest in 1850—provides a good mix of northern and southern, eastern and western, old and new, and fast- and slow-growing urban centers. This volume deals with the city as a corporate entity and contains chapters on urban governmental structures, government finance, politics and elections, urban political leadership, the city plan and city planning, intergovernmental relations, and urban mercantilism.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• SERIES INTRODUCTION
• VOLUME INTRODUCTION
• A NOTE ON SOURCES
• 1. City Government
• 2. Financing Urban Government
• 3. Urban Politics
• 4. Who Governed?
• 5. The City and the Plan
• 6. Intergovernmental Relations
• 7. Urban Mercantilism
• CONCLUSION
• NOTES
• INDEX
• Maps follow page 193.