Book Review: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities

Title                       : New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities

Author                  : Janet Abu-Lughod

Publisher/Year   : University of Minnesota Press/ 1999

Pages                    : 580 pages

Reviewer             : Yudo Anggoro, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

This book, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities, focuses on three large American cities that have been holding superior position in terms of spatial structure, economy, demography, politics, and cultural across time. By observing the development patterns of the three global cities, Abu-Lughod provides a good framework in understanding the nature of the rise of global cities and the way they evolve and face challenges over time.

Abu-Lughod, a Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, divides the development of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles through four chronological cycles, which are: from the founding of the colonies to about 1820, to the development phase between 1820s and the 1870s; followed by the establishment of the three cities from the stock market crash in 1873 to the Great Depression in 1929; to the restructuring from the depression from 1930-1970; and finally the restructuring the global economy until today. Abu-Lughod intends to establish the historical background of the three urbanized regions, so that all of these cycles may provide a perspective in understanding how those cities respond to spatial, economic, political, social, and cultural changes in each cycle.

The first part of this book observes a mercantile period of “preindustrial” colonialism/decolonization era of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles that stretched from 1607 towards the growth of those cities around 1820, and development of those cities until 1870s. In this earliest historic cycle, New York was the only city that has established its dominance as a multicultural mercantile city, while Chicago and Los Angeles were still in their initial development phase. New York has long demonstrated certain distinctive qualities as a global city, such as: a relative disengagement from the battles of the nation; location at a strategic harbor site; a multicultural population; and a fluid spirit of entrepreneurial adventurism and mobility, not only in goods but also in politics, ideas, and culture. Later, from 1820 to 1870s, New York has grown remarkably to become the first American global city. Some large infrastructure and economic projects were built during this period, such as transportation and information, and the FIRE sectors: Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.

During this period, Chicago and Los Angeles had contrast comparison to New York. Between 1820 and 1870, Chicago was developed into a small unstructured industrial town that covered less than half a square mile on either side of the Chicago River. It was the Chicago fire in 1871 that marked the development of a more structured city of Chicago. Meanwhile, Los Angeles initially consisted of desert and mountains. Despite its current role as the country’s largest manufacturing center and a major collector of the country’s agricultural wealth, Los Angeles began with none of these economic advantages. It was only a simple agricultural village living by subsistence farming. Later, between 1820 and 1870, Los Angeles was developed as an urban form typical of Mexican city and was dominated by entrepreneurs and businessmen arrived by sea from New England.

The development of the three cities from stock market crash in 1873 to stock market crash in 1929 is the main focus in part 2 of this book. This era was also marked by massive immigration to the United States. Firms and industries in New York and Chicago were engaged in active recruitment of black labor from the South, although New York drew its new labor force from the more urbanized eastern seaboard of the South and from the Caribbean, while Chicago depended almost exclusively on workers from rural and backward agricultural states, especially Mississippi. On the other hand, Los Angeles experienced little additional industrial demand.

All of these cities were also affected by industrialization as the main driver of urban transformation in the America. New York focused its industrialization on many relatively small-scale factories and workshops, while Chicago put the focus on heavy industrial goods produced in small plants. Los Angeles’ industrial mix was less coherent: heavy industry still focused on oil extraction, and in the 1920s, the city’s main industry had become the making of motion-pictures in Hollywood. The era between 1870s and 1929 was also vital in terms of the art of city building, especially in New York and Chicago, but only to a limited extent in Los Angeles. The architectural styles in New York and Chicago got heavy influence from European styles. This period was also characterized by the emergence of professional planners that had responsibilities for physical planning, zoning, and making regulations.

Part 3 of this book focuses from the depths of the Great Depression in 1929 to the recovery and restructuring era in the 1970s. There are three phases within this time period that had different effects on the three cities. Those phases are the period of economic collapse in the 1930s, the economic recovery engendered by World War II and its aftermath, and the revival of a war-geared economy from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The collapse of international trade and finance in 1929 had its most profound impacts on New York due to the abrupt drop in international circulation of goods. The declining demand for industrial goods hit Chicago the hardest, and it caused the closing of plants and high unemployment rates. In contrast, the effects of this recession on Los Angeles were less disastrous and have shorter duration. This was due to the continued migration of people into the area from more severely affected zones. Even though unemployment rose astronomically in other urbanized areas, by the middle of the decade a new period of industrialization and a modest increase in jobs was already underway in the Los Angeles area.

The recovery era began towards the end of the 1930s when the federal government launched several programs to ensure that industries could re-run their operations. New York decided to boost its shipping and related industries, as the port became the major location from which war material was sent to European allies for the purpose of World War II (even before the official entry of the United States in the war). Its aircraft manufacturers were growing rapidly as plants on Long Island expanded to meet the burgeoning demand. Chicago also received much-needed infusions, as orders for trucks, tanks, and other “machines of war” caused a reopening of retooled plants and a backward-linkage demand for the steel from which machines were to be built. Los Angeles’ tire, aircraft, and motor vehicles plants were already up and running when the United States entered the war, and there were optimistic predictions about this region’s future as a major steel producer. But it was not until after the United States entered the war officially, triggered by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that the West Coast in general, and Los Angeles in particular, became the leader of industrial development that was fueled by war industries.

In the 1960s, the economic health of the three urbanized regions had already diverged significantly. Chicago’s postwar flush of prosperity had begun to decline, especially within the city limits. Growth in the region’s jobs and population was leveling off, and within the city limits the total population had actually begun to decline. New York City had not yet reached the limits of growth within the five boroughs, even though most of the region’s new industrial, commercial, and residential growth was taking place in arena well beyond the city’s taxing jurisdiction. But it was Los Angeles that had the most explosive growth occurred. By the 1970s, Los Angeles was on a growth trajectory that outstripped the other two, so it was not a surprise when in 1990 Los Angeles replaced Chicago as the second largest city in the United States.

The final part of this book specifically discusses the condition of the three urbanized regions due to the dramatic economic changes and the advancement of innovation and technology from the 1970s to the present era. The main driver of the dramatic changes in this era is the development of information technology. Another force that transforms the urban regions is the transport system which focuses on faster and cheaper means of transportation which enhanced informational controls, have permitted manufacturing areas to be radically decentralized to countries outside the United States that enjoy markedly lower labor costs. The general economic changes in the United States during this period include the increasing of productivity and immigration, which led to the surplus of labor. As a result, the US income distribution has been growing more unequal so that the problem of inequality, unemployment and poverty increased. Due to the changes in national economic condition and its implications, these three cities needed to prepare their strategy, especially in the area of taxation, employment policies, and the weakening of domestic labor.

In summarizing this book, Abu-Lughod reminds us that globalization is simply an ongoing process whereby larger and larger portions of the world become increasingly linked to one another via material exchanges of resources, commodities, and currencies, as well as through a widening of the geographic range over which population move. She also stresses the importance of understanding the historical context of globalization and global cities. By understanding the historical patterns on the growth of these three cities, all the consequences that occurred in terms of economic, political, social, and cultural contexts can be managed properly. It also provides us with the framework in understanding the dynamics of urban regions and global cities in the future.

(unpublished)