The American City

the long version

"Does America have a sense of community and a vital civic culture? Are disparate groups capable of uniting as a single people who can call themselves "Americans?" Do Americans help each other for the common good?" "Daniel J. Monti, Jr. addresses these questions in this wide-ranging volume spanning three hundred years of American civic life. He reconciles the views of liberal and conservative urbanists, and answers that "yes," Americans are indeed a community of believers, and that a viable and vital urban culture exists in the United States despite notions of division and apathy. In a series of portraits of small, medium-sized, and large American cities, Monti reveals urban America in a positive light, a place where people work together for the common good."--BOOK JACKET.