Almost by definition cities are in constant flux. Given this fact how is it possible to
document the history of cities? And,
what is the value of doing so? The
readings for this week, Beyond
Preservation by Andrew Hurley and The
Power of Place by Dolores Hayden, can help us answer these questions.
In Beyond Preservation
Andrew Hurley, a historians an veteran of public history endeavors in the St.
Louis, Missouri area, tries to resolve a problem that is manifest in many
American cities: how can one foster preservation of distressed urban landscapes
without also inviting gentrification and population turnover? Preservation, as it has been practiced since
the late twentieth century, has generally been an economic development
strategy. Developers took an interest in
restoring run-down gold coast districts in the hopes of luring the well-healed
back to the city in the years after suburbanization. The resulting historic districts, for example
Boston’s Beacon Hill and Philadelphia’s Society Hill, were often sterile. They attempted to tell one story (usually an
elite one) and presented a unified appearance that covered up the diverse and
contested nature of the urban past. To
make matters even more problematic, preservation often led to the displacement
of existing communities, as poorer residents were forced to flee in the face of
surging rents and property assessments.
Despite the troubling track record of preservation, Hurley
is not prepared to give up on it. For
Hurley the answer to saving preservation is interpretation. By constructing interpretations of
neighborhoods through public historical and archaeological work, it is possible
to endow neighborhood inhabitants with a sense of belonging and ownership. In turn, a community revived in such a way will
be amenable to preservation, but on their own terms. The case studies presented by Hurley reveal
that the projects that result from a fusion of the preservationist impulse and
a “bottom-up” historical sensibility are far different, and far more true to
the past of the cities and their existing social reality.
Drawing on Dolores Hayden’s experience leading a Los Angeles
non-profit of the same name The Power of
Place is also concerned with the interpretation of urban landscapes. However, Hayden is less concerned than Hurley
with harnessing the power of interpretation for preservationist ends and more
interested in public historical projects for their own sake.
Towards this end, the first part of Hayden’s book provides
an introduction to the concept of place and the social construction of
place. Following Henri Lefebvre, Hayden
discusses the production of urban places through social and environmental
operations. As Hayden sees it the task
of the public historian lies in making manifest the constructed nature of place
and explicating the numerous ways different people have contributed to it. Like academic historians interpret texts with
an eye toward documenting the complexity of causality and the contingency of
events, public historians (as well as public artists) must aim to interpret
urban landscapes in a way that recovers the complexity and inclusiveness of the
processes that produce all of its parts, from houses and commercial spaces to
infrastructure like roads and streetcar lines.
Of the two authors I find that Hayden lays out the more
promising agenda. By highlighting the
constructed nature of place, as Hayden recommends, public historians can
present urban history as a process that continues in the present. On the contrary, making preservation and
“stability” part of our agenda, as Hurley supports, seems to leave public
history vulnerable. There is too great
of a risk of history becoming heritage, therapeutic rather than
challenging. To his credit, Hurley is
well aware of the risks and diligently points out the potential for danger in
his case studies, but he has not convinced me that the risks are worth it.
Until Next Time,
J
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