Christian Montès
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226080482
- eISBN:
- 9780226080512
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226080512.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book will be the first to offer a comprehensive study of American State capitals. Drawing from a historical geography perspective, it gives an insight into the complex processes leading to the ...
More
This book will be the first to offer a comprehensive study of American State capitals. Drawing from a historical geography perspective, it gives an insight into the complex processes leading to the selection of state capitals as well as a first assessment of their subsequent evolution and of their integration to the broader processes of territorial and urban building. The book is divided in three sections. The first addresses state capitals as places of memory and studies the urban fabric as well as their symbolic value. The second section studies the capitals’ selection processes. Searching the most suitable location for a capital revealed the way citizens defined democracy (“the people” seldom had to choose directly), territory (through the multifold concept of centrality), and their relationships with the urban world that was beginning to arise and dominate America. The third section tries to explain the developmental delay of most capitals even with the advent of the knowledge economy which should dwell upon their learned workforce and amenities. After the study of the fate of former capitals (for which heritage plays a large part), the book closes by looking at the real extent of changes in state capitals’ place in today’s United States.Less
This book will be the first to offer a comprehensive study of American State capitals. Drawing from a historical geography perspective, it gives an insight into the complex processes leading to the selection of state capitals as well as a first assessment of their subsequent evolution and of their integration to the broader processes of territorial and urban building. The book is divided in three sections. The first addresses state capitals as places of memory and studies the urban fabric as well as their symbolic value. The second section studies the capitals’ selection processes. Searching the most suitable location for a capital revealed the way citizens defined democracy (“the people” seldom had to choose directly), territory (through the multifold concept of centrality), and their relationships with the urban world that was beginning to arise and dominate America. The third section tries to explain the developmental delay of most capitals even with the advent of the knowledge economy which should dwell upon their learned workforce and amenities. After the study of the fate of former capitals (for which heritage plays a large part), the book closes by looking at the real extent of changes in state capitals’ place in today’s United States.
Christian Montès
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226080482
- eISBN:
- 9780226080512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226080512.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This introductory chapter frames the study. A first approach searches for the models throwing light on the processes at work and for the theories explaining the formation, evolution, and image of ...
More
This introductory chapter frames the study. A first approach searches for the models throwing light on the processes at work and for the theories explaining the formation, evolution, and image of urban America that help in understanding capitals. The process of capital selection is understood as a revealing moment of crisis. The approach is incremental, the progressive building of an explanatory model, without predetermining its components. Capitals are symbolic places that participate in the territorial construction, along with interactive adjustments with other ways of territorial structuring. Capital cities were and are the embodiment of power. A second approach deals with the position capitals have in the American urban system: Are state capitals more than simply symbolic towns? Do they form a parallel system, disconnected from the classical one, largely based on economic criteria? Do state capitals express an imbalance between form and function? The developmental delay of many of them will be here addressed.Less
This introductory chapter frames the study. A first approach searches for the models throwing light on the processes at work and for the theories explaining the formation, evolution, and image of urban America that help in understanding capitals. The process of capital selection is understood as a revealing moment of crisis. The approach is incremental, the progressive building of an explanatory model, without predetermining its components. Capitals are symbolic places that participate in the territorial construction, along with interactive adjustments with other ways of territorial structuring. Capital cities were and are the embodiment of power. A second approach deals with the position capitals have in the American urban system: Are state capitals more than simply symbolic towns? Do they form a parallel system, disconnected from the classical one, largely based on economic criteria? Do state capitals express an imbalance between form and function? The developmental delay of many of them will be here addressed.
