E-Book Overview
State capitals are an indelible part of the American psyche, spatial representations of state power and national identity. Learning them by heart is a rite of passage in grade school, a pedagogical exercise that emphasizes the importance of committing place-names to memory. But geographers have yet to analyze state capitals in any depth. In American Capitals, Christian Montès takes us on a well-researched journey across America—from Augusta to Sacramento, Albany to Baton Rouge—shedding light along the way on the historical circumstances that led to their appointment, their success or failure, and their evolution over time.
While all state capitals have a number of characteristics in common—as symbols of the state, as embodiments of political power and decision making, as public spaces with private interests—Montès does not interpret them through a single lens, in large part because of the differences in their spatial and historical evolutionary patterns. Some have remained small, while others have evolved into bustling metropolises, and Montès explores the dynamics of change and growth. All but eleven state capitals were established in the nineteenth century, thirty-five before 1861, but, rather astonishingly, only eight of the fifty states have maintained their original capitals. Despite their revered status as the most monumental and historical cities in America, capitals come from surprisingly humble beginnings, often plagued by instability, conflict, hostility, and corruption. Montès reminds us of the period in which they came about, “an era of pioneer and idealized territorial vision,” coupled with a still-evolving American citizenry and democracy.
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American Capitals university of chicago geography research paper number 247 series editors: michael p. conzen, neil harris, marvin w. mikesell, and gerald d. suttles Titles published in the Geography Research Papers series prior to 1992 and still in print are now distributed by the University of Chicago Press. The list of available titles follows. The University of Chicago Press commenced publication of the Geography Research Papers series in 1992 with number 233. titles in print (additional titles listed after index) 246. philip w. porter, Challenging Nature: Local Knowledge, Agroscience, and Food Security in Tanga Region, Tanzania, 2006 237. chad f. emmett, Beyond the Basilica: Christians and Muslims in Nazareth, 1995 245. christian a. kull, Isle of Fire: The Political Ecology of Landscape Burning in Madagascar, 2004 236. shaul ephraim cohen, The Politics of Planting: IsraeliPalestinian Competition for Control of Land in the Jerusalem Periphery, 1993 244. charles m. good, The Steamer Parish: The Rise and Fall of Missionary Medicine on an African Frontier, 2003 235. michael p. conzen, Thomas A. Rumney and Graeme Wynn: A Scholar’s Guide to Geographical Writing on the American and Canadian Past, 1993 243. john a. agnew, Place and Politics in Modern Italy, 2002 234. david m. kummer, Deforestation in the Postwar Philippines, 1992 242. klaus frantz, Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomic Change, 1999 241. hugh prince, Wetlands of the American Midwest: A Historical Geography of Changing Attitudes, 1997 240. anne kelly knowles, Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier, 1996 239. alex g. papadopoulos, Urban Regimes and Strategies: Building Europe’s Central Executive District in Brussels, 1996 238. edward t. price, Dividing the Land: Early American Beginnings of Our Private Property Mosaic, 1995 233. risa palm and michael e. hodgson, After a California Earthquake: Attitude and Behavior Change, 1992 230. christopher mueller-wille, Natural Landscape Amenities and Suburban