White Cities, Linguistic Turns, and Disneylands: The New Paradigms of Urban History

Abstract

Few events better illustrate the multiple paradigms in recent urban history than the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. For decades, the considerable literature on the Fair emphasized the and issues of physical planning, moral order, and neoclassical architecture. But since 1980, the Exposition has exemplified the growing diversity of urban historiography. 1 For Christine Boyer, the Fair was part of new discourse reflecting the emergence of modern urban planning. By contrast, Stanley Schultz characterizes the Exposition not as beginning, but the culmination of the planning ethos of the nineteenth century. William Cronon invokes the event as metaphor for the shock city of industrial America, a fantasy landscape, and a fairy city symbolizing Chicago's historic climax. Alan Trachtenberg and Wim de Wit underscore nationalism, viewing the Fair as grand illusion by American rulers to win hegemony over the emerging national culture. Peter Hales, by comparison, emphasizes urban culture, with an elite seeking control over the production of the urban vision. Most critical is Robert Rydell, who sees the White City as a cultural Frankenstein, a coin minted in the tradition of American racism. 2