Understanding Urban Progressivism and the City Beautiful Movement

Authors

James LaGrand

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2020

Abstract

This article places the City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg within the history of urban progressive reform in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, a time of industrial growth and the various problems stemming from it. In order to better understand the City Beautiful movement, it is helpful to engage the scholarly literature on Progressivism, which notes its complexity, with many different goals, strategies, and historical actors. Of benefit to those seeking to further our understanding of the City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg are new tools, methodologies, and approaches that include digital history, public history, and public humanities.

Comments

This edited collection was developed and published in tandem with the IIPT-Commonwealth Monument Project (2018-2020), with support and funding from Messiah University's Center for Public Humanities and the Council of Independent College's Humanities Research for the Public Good Grant Program.

Originally published as:
LaGrand. (2020). Understanding urban progressivism and the city beautiful movement. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 87(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.5325/pennhistory.87.1.0011.

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