City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present

489 Pages·2019·36.213 MB·English

by  Alex Krieger

CITY ON A HILL

C I T Y

o n a
H I L L
Urban Idealism in America
from the Puritans to the Present

alex krieger
the belknap press of harvard university press
cambridge, massachusetts and london, england 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Alex Krieger
all rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Jacket design: Graciela Galup
Jacket art: John M Lund Photography Inc. / Getty Images
9780674246454 (EPUB)
9780674246461 (MOBI)
9780674246447 (PDF)
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Krieger, Alex, 1951- author.
Title: City on a hill : urban idealism in America from the Puritans to the
present / Alex Krieger.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019019803 | ISBN 9780674987999
Subjects: LCSH: City planning—United States—History. | Utopias—
United States—History. | Cities and towns—United States—History.
Classification: LCC HT167 .K74 2019 | DDC 307.1 / 2160973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019803
Dedicated to Isara and Isaiah,
and to Anne, partner in life and the more gifted writer

Ten thousand people had “squatted” upon a square mile of virgin
prairie that first afternoon . . . . Here indeed was a city laid out and
populated in half a day. Thousands of campfires sparkled upon the
dark bosom of the prairie as far as the eye could reach.
Oklahoma Boomer, 1889
Utopians traced the lines of the first city.
Anatole France, 1895

CONTENTS
Preface xi
Introduction:
Dreams of a Future in a New World 1
1 Jefferson’s Blueprint for an
Egalitarian Republic 15
2 A Nature’s Nation in the
Garden of the World 35
3 Interpreting America’s Anti-Urban Bias 55
4 The Small Town as an Ideal:
Puritan Covenants to Celebration, Florida 69
5 The Company Town Away from Town 89
6 “Grace Dwelling in It”:
The Romance of the Suburb 109
7 Seeding Settlement:
Homesteads, Land Grants, and Capital Seats 133
8 Making Nature Urbane:
Olmsted and the Parks Movement 151
9 Utopians and Reformers in a
Cauldron of Urbanization 175
10 Washington:
City of Magnificent Intentions 191