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Janet L. Abu Lughod,
Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, 580 pp.
Janet Abu Lughod is a "hall of famer" in American urban sociology. In the late 1960s, she became well known for her application of social area analysis to the ecology of Cairo. Since then, she has published a case study of urban apartheid in Morocco; an historical analysis of the world system in the 13[Symbol Not Transcribed] century and an edited volume on the battle for control of New York's Lower East Side in the 1980s. Now, Abu Lughod has written what is described on the back cover as "the first book to compare these cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) in an ambitious in-depth study that takes into account each city's unique history, following their development from their earliest days to their current status as players on the global stage." Ambitious it certainly is! The study spans four centuries and comes with 126 pages of footnotes. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles turns out to be both a triumph and a disappointment.
Where the book shines is as a carefully documented overview of the differing urbanization paths taken by America's three premier cities. Abu Lughod is keenly interested in the demography and politics of race, class and immigration and it is here that her analysis is strongest. Each city has followed a different path. Chicago has long been divided by "bipolar racial animosities" between whites and blacks. This has allowed the white-dominated Democratic machine established by the legendary "Boss"...
