Sample Search in the America: History & Life Database

Sample records:

Title: Modelling the urban future: planning, slums and the seduction of growth in St Louis, 1940–1950.

Authors: Heathcott, Joseph¹ (AUTHOR) heathcje@slu.edu

Source: Planning Perspectives. Oct2005, Vol. 20 Issue 4, p369-387. 19p.

Historical Period:1940 to 1950

Document Type: Article

Abstract: Considers the attempts by planners during and after World War II to forecast population change for the purposes of long-range planning. St. Louis, Missouri, is used as a case study to examine the social, economic, and political contexts within which decisions about how to map the city's future were made. At the heart of the problem is the adoption by the city of a growth model to justify a large-scale slum clearance agenda at the very moment when the city was poised for catastrophic population loss. Planners allowed themselves to be caught up in the momentary crisis of a wartime population spike, ultimately ignoring their own frequent warnings about underlying trends toward population decline. Within this postwar crisis of temporary overcrowding, planners made the critical decision to move ahead with slum clearance projects of unprecedented scale. Unfortunately, by the time their projects were complete, the city for which they had been undertaken no longer existed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Record: 2

Title: PLANNING FOR THE POSTWAR CITY: THE URBAN WEST IN WORLD WAR II.

Authors: Nash, Gerald D.

Source: Arizona & the West. 1985, Vol. 27 Issue 2, p99-112. 14p.

Historical Period:1945 to 1985

Document Type: Article

Abstract: World War II must be considered as a watershed in the city planning movement in the 20th-century American West. Idealists who wanted to embody social goals in city planning were enthusiastic proponents of urban and regional centralized planning under federal auspices. In the end, however, public officials and business groups who opted for pragmatism prevailed. In the four postwar decades, such practical issues as war-to-peacetime conversion of industries, meeting the transportation and housing needs of the hordes of newcomers, and full employment have dominated urban planning.

Notes:3 illus., 22 notes.

Record: 3

Title: World War II and the growth of southern city planning: a gigantic force?

Authors: Lotchin, Rogert¹ rlotchin@email.unc.edu

Source: Planning Perspectives. Oct2003, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p355. 22p. 2 Charts.

Historical Period: 1940 to 1950

Document Type: Article

Abstract: Southern city planning experienced only modest changes during World War II. The war did create considerable growth in a few Southern cities. However, the vast majority of them did not grow and usually declined. In the boom cities, the war created disorderly conditions inimical to good city planning. On the other hand, the cities that declined made modest progress in planning, mainly in establishing amateur planning commissions and adopting zoning laws. These relatively tranquil cities laid the foundations for planning development, while the boom cities just tried to keep their heads above water. In sum, the dramatic changes that war caused to other aspects of historical experience did not touch Southern city planning.