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I think I've asked this in comments before, but I want to open it up a bit. Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier is the best broad/survey history I've ever read of the formation of American cites and suburbs. Unlike a lot of survey's, Jackson actually takes positions and makes arguments. I've read a lot of books on cities since, but none that take a macro level look at the history.


But Crabgrass was published in almost thirty years ago. There have to have been advances since then. Does anyone know of a more up to date volume that's taken up Jackson's work with the same sort of breadth and depth? I don't polemics or even micro-histories of neighborhoods or cities, but more national works. The more local histories have their place -- Thomas Sugrue's work is king--but I'm asking about something else.

Thoughts?
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Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore -- not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-'90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

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