Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner Cities

Urban Life, Landscape, and Policy

by Andrew Hurley

Across the United States, historic preservation has become a catalyst for urban regeneration. Entrepreneurs, urban pioneers, and veteran city dwellers have refurbished thousands of dilapidated properties and put them to productive use as shops, restaurants, nightclubs, museums, and private residences. As a result, inner-cities, once disparaged as zones of poverty, crime, and decay have been re-branded as historic districts. Although these preservation initiatives, often supported by government tax incentives and rigid architectural controls, deserve credit for bringing people back to the city, raising property values, and generating tourist revenue, they have been less successful in creating stable and harmonious communities. Beyond Preservation proposes a framework for stabilizing and strengthening inner-city neighborhoods through the public interpretation of historic landscapes. Its central argument is that inner-city communities can best turn preserved landscapes into assets by subjecting them to public interpretation at the grass-roots. Based on an examination of successful projects in St. Louis, Missouri and other U.S. cities, Andrew Hurley demonstrates how rigorous historical analysis can help communities articulate a local identity and plan intelligently on the basis of existing cultural and social assets.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Grad School, Urban, Sociology, Urban Planning

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Andrew Hurley, Ph.D., is with the Department of History at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He is interested in urban history, environmental history, 20th century United States, and public history.

For the translator, see Andrew Hurley.

Reviews

[James Dubelko · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! Explores best practices for collaborations between academic historians (and to an extent archaeologists)and community organizations that help to, as the title states, revitalize inner cities. If more local government officials read this book, there'd be a lot more public funding available for public history--and perhaps more inner city neighborhoods across the country would experience sustainable rebirths.

[Jw · Rating 5 out of 5]

mind altering stuff. questions how a lot of preservation movements and history exhibitions reinforce power and privelige in our society. this also is related to gentrification and how certain neighborhoods and buildings become valued over others. talks about successful ways in detail about people in places across the country who have used public history and the history of marginalized people in incredibly transformative ways. in particular there are examples from St. Louis of people who used their history to make their neighborhood a lively and successful place for working families, without bringing in wealthy people who would've pushed them out.

[Courtney Homer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at urban renewal - the pitfalls of "gentrification" and how to avoid them. Uses history as well as a case study in St Louis to argue for better use of oral history and archaeology to connect with the community and understand the history of a place so its inhabitants can better direct its future.

[Denise M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly the book that my Introduction to Public History course has been missing. Through both history and case study, Hurley encourages readers to recognize the role that public history can play in reframing preservation as a more democratic tool for place-making.