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A sign in support of Donald Trump in front of an Ohio junkyard in 2024.
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The 2024 Election Marked the Inversion of the Electoral Map

Instead of trying to recapture working class votes, Democrats should be focused on building the kind of economy they need to expand the political map.
by Stephanie Ternullo via Made By History on December 16, 2024
Cartoon of a person squished upside-down in a city high-rise.

The Death and Life of Progressive Urbanism

Blue America lacks a Gov. Ron DeSantis: someone remaking a state or major city in the image of a well-articulated ideology.
by Ross Barkan via Compact on October 2, 2024
Streetlamps and red trail lights glow in a dark city street.

A Nation of Cop Cities

The push to build large police training facilities follows on a long history of armories as both symbols and manifestations of state power.
by Matthew Guariglia via Inquest on September 26, 2024
Small headstones for pets in Hyde Park, London, dating back to the 1880s.

Why the World’s First Pet Cemetery Was Revolutionary

A new book charts the history of pet cemeteries and honors the universal experience of grieving an animal companion.
by Rachel Nuwer via Smithsonian on September 24, 2024

Read Another Book

The Power Broker leaves us ill-equipped to understand or confront the struggles that face the city today.
by Henry Grabar via Slate on September 16, 2024
A klaxon car horn.

A Loud Warning From the Past About Living With Cars

Klaxon horns, once standard safety equipment, disappeared from the roads after World War I. But the tensions they exposed about urban noise still echo.
by David Zipper, Matthew F. Jordan via CityLab on August 26, 2024
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A Nice, Provocative Silence

The author of "Cahokia Jazz" reflects on the similarities between historical fiction and science fiction, and the imaginative space opened by archival silences.
by Francis Spufford, Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on August 13, 2024
An oblique view of Columbus Circle taken on Jan. 7, 1924 by the Fairchild Aerial Camera Company.

A Portrait of New York City by Air in 1924

Long before Google Maps, an intrepid inventor with three camera-equipped biplanes captured a groundbreaking view of Gotham in its Jazz Age glory.
by Thomas J. Campanella via Bloomberg on June 29, 2024
A painting of a crowd of people heading through gates labeled Chicago, New York, and St. Louis.

Fog From Harlem: Recovering a New Negro Renaissance in the American Midwest

How the focus on Harlem obfuscated Black culture in the Midwest.
by Sam Thozer via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on June 19, 2024
1905 Sanborn insurance map of San Francisco, damaged by the fires after the 1906 earthquake.

From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Created for US insurance firms during devastating fires across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sanborn maps blaze with detail the aspects of American cities.
by Tobiah Black via The Public Domain Review on June 12, 2024
The Bahá’í House of Worship, a tall, ornate building made of concrete, illuminated against a cloudy sky.

The Beauty of Concrete

Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately ornamented? The answer is not the cost of labor.
by Samuel Hughes via Works In Progress on May 17, 2024
Cover of "The Black Tax"

Tax History Matters: A Q&A with the Author of ‘The Black Tax’

The history of the property tax system and its structural defects that have led to widespread discrimination against Black Americans.
by Andrew W. Kahrl, Brakeyshia Samms via Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy on April 24, 2024
North Carolina Mutual executives.

Black Capitalism and the City

African American insurance and the actuarial double bind.
by Ginger Nolan via Places Journal on April 16, 2024
A brown rat standing on its hind legs.

How Big Rats Took Over North America

Rat bones collected from centuries-old shipwrecks tell a story of ecological competition and swift victory.
by Lauren Leffer via Popular Science on April 3, 2024
A protest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray.

The Problem with Baltimore

The impact of the city's history with slavery.
by Anthony Smooth via Black Perspectives on March 22, 2024
A photograph of the SS Eastland.

Checking out Historical Chicago: Cynthia Pelayo's "Forgotten Sisters"

The SS Eastland disaster and Chicago's ghosts.
by Elizabeth McNeill via Chicago Review of Books on March 20, 2024
The Castello Plan map, depicting the broad way (Broadway) and the Wall (Wall Street)

This New York City Map Is Full of Dutch Secrets

When Broadway was a broad way and Wall Street was a wall.
by April White via Atlas Obscura on March 19, 2024
Title card of the cartoon, featuring FDR committing money to a federal housing program.

The Tragedy and Tenacity of Public Housing in America

A cartoon report on the only policy proven to address the housing shortage and how racism, inept management, and disinvestment led to long-term decline.
by Eric Orner via The Nation on March 18, 2024
San Diego Postcard.

San Diego—A Green(Er) City: Six Decades Of Environmental Activism In A Biodiversity Hotspot

San Diego's city-wide mission to promote sustainability, combat climate change, and reduce environmental health disparities.
by Andrew Wiese via The Metropole on February 13, 2024
Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) tries unsuccessfully to hail a taxi as cabbies stage a rolling protest against app-based ride-hailing services.

Uber and the Impoverished Public Expectations of the 2010s

A new book shows that Uber was a symbol of a neoliberal philosophy that neglected public funding and regulation in favor of rule by private corporations.
by Sandeep Vaheesan via The American Prospect on January 16, 2024
This isn’t a controversial issue: New Yorkers want more public bathrooms.

Give Us Public Toilets

The fight for a dignified space to carry out the most basic of human functions was popular when 19th-century Progressives took it on. It's time to take up that fight again.
by Adam Bailey via Jacobin on December 7, 2023
People scavenging through garbage on a barge in New York City

A History of Garbage

The history of garbage dumps is the history of America.
by Livia Gershon, Sarah Hill via JSTOR Daily on November 10, 2023
Statue of Paul Revere on Boston's Freedom Trail.

On the Trail—to Freedom?

Touring the palimpsests of cities.
by Charlie Riggs via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
A modern paper map of Boston, marked with Sharpie lines.

Boston's Map, Explained

Boston has more "made" land than any other American city.
by Daniel Steiner via YouTube on October 26, 2023
A ballot from Ireland’s 2020 general election.

Avoiding the PR Mistakes of the Past

The proportional representation (PR) vs. single transferable vote (STV) battle in local elections.
by Jack Santucci via Democracy Journal on September 12, 2023
Parking lot full of cars

The Tyranny of the Parking Lot

Finding space for cars has remade the built world. A new history uncovers just how much our lives revolve around parking.
by Ben Furnas via The Nation on September 7, 2023
Wood engraving of streets and buildings in a city scene.

The World That Municipal Socialists Built

Urban socialists blazed a path toward social democracy. Leftists who want to reclaim this tradition face a whole new set of obstacles.
by Justin H. Vassallo via Dissent on September 5, 2023
A Bank of America branch in San Francisco.

Bond Villains

Municipal governments today hold around $4 trillion in outstanding debt. The growing costs of simply servicing their debt is cannibalizing their annual budgets.
by Clark Randall via Boston Review on August 16, 2023
Exchange Coffee House illustration

The First American Hotels

In the eighteenth century, if people in British North America had to travel, they stayed at public houses that were often just repurposed private homes.
by Livia Gershon, Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz via JSTOR Daily on May 26, 2023
A collage shows a white hand segregating Black Americans.

No Breakthrough in Sight

More than fifty years after the Fair Housing Act, inequality and segregation persists. What went wrong?
by Kaila Philo via The Baffler on May 9, 2023
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