Abstract
This is the sixth book to appear in Temple’s ambitious Pennsylvania History Series under the joint editorship of Beverly C. Tomek and Allen Dietrich-Ward. There are few places so linked with a nation’s identity as Philadelphia, PA. Landmarks such as the Liberty Bell or the city’s Independence Hall, where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed, evoke an intimate connection to the process of the American Revolution. The author Roger D. Simon is an urban and social historian at Lehigh University (now retired), focusing on the impact of industrialization and the urbanization process. In Philadelphia: A Brief History, Simon aims to demonstrate the circumstances that shaped Philadelphia’s evolution as a city that wanted to combine economic prosperity with community needs. Simon displays throughout his book that maintaining and sustaining a harmony between economic prosperity and community needs was indeed a challenge for Philadelphia. Philadelphia, as Simon reminds us, is a city that conjures images of the concept of freedom, democracy, and individual rights. The book is very readable, anchored in analytical, chronological, and descriptive approach, as it has evolved over more than three centuries of the life of Philadelphia. Overall, the book is structured into five chapters.
Philadelphia begins with a short introduction establishing the context around William Penn’s vision of a model community. Despite the passage of time and inevitable fading of memory, Simon as an urban historian frequently ascribes acknowledgment to Penn’s vision and of Ben Franklin, George Whitefield, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones (among many others) for their defense, advocacy, and pursuit of community building. After an introduction that describes the book’s genesis and lays out the framework, chapter 1 provides an overview of how the city of Philadelphia was established. In the process, Simon attempts to buttress the evidence he draws from anecdotes of class, race, and daily life in colonial Philadelphia and the events leading up to the American Revolution. Chapter 2 turns the gaze to the emergence of Philadelphia as a preindustrial city between 1800 and 1865, attempting to balance community good with capital gains. Chapter 3 describes and explains both the industrial triumph and associated civic failures of Philadelphia during 1865 to 1930. Chapter 4 situates the rise of suburban Philadelphia and the associated economic decline often leading to turmoil in the community within the overall context of national and global stimulus. The last chapter’s focus is on a struggling Philadelphia as a postindustrial city between 1980 and 2016.
Philadelphia is well written; the arguments are presented clearly and are free of jargon. The depth and breadth of research are impressive. Simon’s sources are an array of regional libraries and archives, supplemented by exhaustive field research. Although not overly theoretical, Simon’s narrative rests on a body of theory developed by historians concerned with collective memory and interpretation of the past. This debt is acknowledged in the notes but does not intrude unnecessarily into the text. The book is thoroughly documented and is complemented by some 35 illustrations (maps and photographs), many taken by the author. An appendix allows readers to understand population changes over three centuries, while an index enables easy location of places and people.
In short, Philadelphia is for today’s young scholar who wants to have a sense of the historical development of how Philadelphia evolved in the New World, and to be able to compare what happened in the past with what is currently occurring in Philadelphia. Indeed, Simon’s valiant efforts do much to provide the necessary background for achieving this goal. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book addresses various fundamental questions about the socioeconomic role of complex processes, such as suburbanization, underlying the historical evolution of Philadelphia, and the role of people and places in shaping the environmental, political, and resulting policy debates. Philadelphia is an essential reading for the lay reader, students, and scholars of economics, geography, politics, and urban studies and planning.