Making Milwaukee Mightier : Planning and the Politics of Growth, 1910-1960

Progressive Era city planners are best known for grandiose civic designs, boosterish planning reports, and promoting technical exper-tise. Traditionally, Milwaukee has not been considered a national standout in these early endeavors; however, the planners in this city are distinctive precisely because they prioritized solving the social problem of overcrowding in lieu of more conventional planning goals. Another unique characteristic of this period is the long tenure of socialist city government. McCarthy offers fresh new insights into socialismAEs impact on Milwaukee, studying the planning and growth policies of all three of the cityAEs socialist mayors and finding striking continuity in the movementAEs metropolitan visions. While most of its Midwest counterparts saw their urban boundaries frozen, Milwaukee grew dramatically during this crucial era in American urban history. Its growth, however, drew the ire of increasingly hostile suburban neighbors, resulting in a prolonged conflict between city and suburbs that reached a crescendo in the 1950s, when suburbanization overwhelmed MilwaukeeAEs capacity to grow. McCarthy concludes his study with thoughtful observation on MilwaukeeAEs relationship to its suburbs at the beginning of the 21st century. Making Milwaukee Mightier amplifies the importance of some historical figures rarely discussed by urban historians, including Charles Whitnall, the cityAEs most influential planner, and Frank Zeidler, the last socialist mayor in modern U.S. history whose views on urban redevelopment differed greatly from his postwar contemporaries in other cities. McCarthy takes such issues as planning, housing, annexation, and suburbanization-often viewed in isolation from one another-and examines the roles each played in the battle for MilwaukeeAEs growth. He also situates MilwaukeeAEs metropolitan history nationally and illuminates the cityAEs role as a forerunner for some of urban AmericaAEs most unique policies. Urban historians, city planners, practitioners, and those interested in the history of Milwaukee will enjoy McCarthyAEs highly original work.