City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present

A common refrain is that Americans dislike cities, favoring places at some distance from the buzz and complexities of urban life. But what if Americans have instead been intrigued by cities of their imagination, rather than those at their feet? The first European settlers saw America as a paradise regained. The continent seemed to offer a God-given opportunity to start again and build the perfect community. Those messianic days are gone, but as Alex Krieger argues in City on a Hill, any attempt at understanding how the country has developed must first recognize the persistent and dramatic consequences of utopian dreaming. Even as ideals have changed, idealism itself has for better and worse shaped our world of bricks and mortar, macadam, parks, and farmland. In this hybrid program, Krieger will explore this uniquely American story from the Pilgrims to the “smart city,” and will deliver a striking new history of our built environment.