Frontier Cities Summary

Frontier Cities, Encounters at the Crossroads of Empire, In the book Frontier Cities, Encounters at the Crossroads of Empire, the authors debate the myriad ways in which cities, in the United States, and worldwide, functioned as crossroads of Empires. This book utilizes other sources, such as Richard C. Wade’s The Urban Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790–1830 (Urbana, 1959), to posit that cities were central to the formation of frontiers. The book also theorizes that frontier cities were the beginning of civilization, in an area, and not merely the end result.
The book focuses on cities like New Orleans, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Montreal to bolster this thesis. However, this book also clarifies that this development
was neither easy, nor according to a particular pattern. The book also hypothesizes that these cities encapsulate both progress and decay simultaneously. Studying imperial ties and political wrangling, the collection of short essays establishes the hypothesis that these cities followed no traditional pattern of settlement, nor did they move in unison through a set measure of development. The contributors often disagree with the ethnocentric assumptions, about Frontier making cities, as they discuss interplay between the cities and the frontier. For example, the elite in Detroit and Montreal mingled with the poor. Whites intermarried with Natives to create metis people. The Chinese, major contributors in the building of the west, were marginalized and experienced racial turmoil. Frontier cities, it seems, were non-homogeneous areas where rules and organization, existed side by side, with disorder. Some of the contributions in this book, are stronger than others.
Matthew Klingler’s chapter in particular, is of great interest. In discussing the development of cities like Seattle and San Francisco, Klingle discusses the way in which the cities both grew, and decayed, simultaneously. Klingler states,” Allegory was impossible to sustain without creating its counterpoint of decline. Dominating nature and dominating people were thus reciprocal and concomitant parts of frontier evolution.” [] 2280 Klingler further discusses the marginalization minorities felt in Seattle as the city struggled to (deal) with growth. Excuses for the marginalization were wide and varied. For example, the Chinese had very little food to cook with and were left with items like seafood, which had a foul odor, leading to the idea that the Chinese were Unhygienic. 2280 These ideas of racial superiority often lead to a complete erasure of communities, leading to the development of so called, ghost
cities. Also, where the earlier Frontier stories are stories of success and development, some of the later ones, especially the Klingler’s story of Seattle, are cautionary. Mistakes were made. Cities like Seattle and San Francisco serve as examples of how frontier biases, hurt minorities, when citizens and businesses, attempted to reinvent their communities in response to unsettling changes. While some of these changed for the better, like improved public health, advanced utility systems, and well planned city centers, many, people, especially minorities and the poor, were left grappling for survival For example, in the chapter , Frontier Ghosts Along the Urban Pacific Coast, Matthew Klingle discusses the way the entire city of Seattle, experienced reengineering in just a few years.
First, the poor and minorities were pushed into low-lying areas, facing overcrowding and disease. Eventually, the overcrowding and disease led to more sanitation issues. Finally, the entire area was redeveloped again with sanitation and development projects, which forced the underprivileged people out. Essentially, Seattle is a true ghost city, built upon the former homes of the people who built the city. Seattle was not alone in this. San Francesco and Las Angeles faced similar fates. These cities bolster the cautionary tone of the later chapters in the book, and does prove the argument that the later frontier stories, were more cautionary tales, than blatant success
stories. The books various perspectives do seem to be somewhat limited. Many of the sources blur the lines between borderland and frontier. The book does manage to cause the reader to look closer at the effects of urbanization on the frontier. Beneath the surface all of that chapters lies that dichotomy of progress and decay. While some contributions which appear stronger than others, in general the book does a good job of showing the ways in which Frontier Cities attempted to maintain ties to Empire, while dealing with local issues like trade and local circumstances. The examples of cities like San Francisco do confirm the statement, made by Klingle, that if we fail to understand this, “we are all just telling ghost Stories. [] 2724