1. CHAPTER 7: Running Rings Around the City: North American Industrial Suburbs, 1850-1950.
- Author
-
Lewis, Robert
- Subjects
URBAN growth ,SUBURBS ,INDUSTRIAL districts ,INDUSTRIAL location ,SOCIAL classes - Abstract
The article focuses on the North American industrial suburbs. The development of suburban industrial districts has been an important element of the changing character of European, American and Canadian metropolitan fringe belts since the middle of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this article is to show the extent of industrial development on the urban fringe and, in particular, the importance of industrial suburbs in the 100 years after 1850. This period is important for two reasons. First, industrial capitalism featuring the rise of manufacturing, technological innovation, massive population growth and new social classes transformed the American and Canadian city after 1850. These changes to urban society had a decisive impact on the character and scale of urban form, one element of which was the development of extensive fringe manufacturing districts. Secondly, the dominant characteristic of the outward thrust of metropolitan areas between 1850 and 1950, according to most writers, was middle-class residential suburbanization.
- Published
- 1999