The metropolitan frontier: cities in the modern American West

Abstract

Urbanisation of the American West was a dramatic process which resulted in 80% of its' population living in metropolitan areas. This book covers the growth and development in this region from 1940 to 1990 covering economic and social change, and also the interlinked political response. The first two chapters assess the impact of WW II on the process of urbanisation suggesting a particularly dominant role. The book then charts both economic and demographic change, whilst examining political response in the period 1955-1990. It draws particular attention to the growth of Silicon Valley and the expansion of NASA in the 1960s. In the three following chapters the focus switches to the impacts of the growth in this region upon urban environments, urban-rural relationships, and the American West's influence on the rest of the US. The book concludes by suggesting the need for the area to again be the impetus of an era of creative change to overcome similar problems to those encountered inthe 1960s. -S.Tanner