The Roots of Urban Renaissance

Brian D. Goldstein

ISBN 10: 0691234752 / ISBN 13: 9780691234755

Published by Princeton University Press, US, 2023

About this Item

An acclaimed history of Harlem's journey from urban crisis to urban renaissanceWith its gleaming shopping centers and refurbished row houses, today's Harlem bears little resemblance to the neighborhood of the midcentury urban crisis. Brian Goldstein traces Harlem's Second Renaissance to a surprising source: the radical social movements of the 1960s that resisted city officials and fought to give Harlemites control of their own destiny. Young Harlem activists, inspired by the civil rights movement, envisioned a Harlem built by and for its low-income, predominantly African American population. In the succeeding decades, however, the community-based organizations they founded came to pursue a very different goal: a neighborhood with national retailers and increasingly affluent residents. The Roots of Urban Renaissance demonstrates that gentrification was not imposed on an unwitting community by unscrupulous developers or opportunistic outsiders. Rather, it grew from the neighborhood's grassroots, producing a legacy that benefited some longtime residents and threatened others.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780691234755

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Roots of Urban Renaissance
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, US
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691234752
• ISBN 13: 9780691234755
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

An acclaimed history of Harlem’s journey from urban crisis to urban renaissance

With its gleaming shopping centers and refurbished row houses, today’s Harlem bears little resemblance to the neighborhood of the midcentury urban crisis. Brian Goldstein traces Harlem’s Second Renaissance to a surprising source: the radical social movements of the 1960s that resisted city officials and fought to give Harlemites control of their own destiny. Young Harlem activists, inspired by the civil rights movement, envisioned a Harlem built by and for its low-income, predominantly African American population. In the succeeding decades, however, the community-based organizations they founded came to pursue a very different goal: a neighborhood with national retailers and increasingly affluent residents. The Roots of Urban Renaissance demonstrates that gentrification was not imposed on an unwitting community by unscrupulous developers or opportunistic outsiders. Rather, it grew from the neighborhood’s grassroots, producing a legacy that benefited some longtime residents and threatened others.

About the Author

Brian D. Goldstein is associate professor of architectural history in the Department of Art and Art History at Swarthmore College.