University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Overview of the American City

Wiley, Norbert

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1580

Description

Title
Overview of the American City
Author(s)
Wiley, Norbert
Issue Date
1971
Keyword(s)
  • Libraries and community
  • Social service --Information services
  • Reference services (Libraries)
  • Community information services
Abstract
American cities can be looked at in many ways, but one thing everyone should be able to agree on is that they are in big trouble. They are dilapidated, congested, trash-strewn, unsafe, rebellionprone, poverty-stricken, polluted, frightened, demoralized and generally on the run. They give every indication of being beyond hope, and little leadership or new ideas are in evidence suggesting otherwise. Actually all cities throughout the industrial world are in trouble, but U. S. cities seem to be especially bad. In contrast, Toronto and Montreal, which Americans visit in great numbers, have a completely different tone. Not only do they look better, they feel a whole lot better, with an optimism and verve that is noticeably absent from Chicago, Cleveland, New York or Los Angeles. This is a striking paradox, that the richest and most powerful nation in the world is losing its ability to maintain healthy communities, that somehow material growth has created problems that are bigger than the people, not just in the environment but in social and psychological life as well. This article will be an attempt to take a cold look at this situation. The approach will be sociological, with an eye toward social relations and problems of organization. It will be diagnostic, with an emphasis on what is wrong and how it might be righted. This analysis will also be from the heart, for I have lived in American cities all my forty years and my six children will probably be doing the same. These are my cities and their sadness is my sadness. I will begin by discussing some of the broader
Publisher
Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Allerton Park Institute (17th : 1971)
ISSN
0536-4604
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1580
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1971.

Owning Collections

1971: Libraries and neighborhood information centers PRIMARY
Allerton Park Institute Proceedings (no. 17, 1971); Edited by Carol L Cronus and Linda Crowe