In an unusually systematic approach to the study of urban politics, this study compares three different models of political power to see which can best explain the development of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System in San Francisco and the attempts of Los Angeles to build a comparable system. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This title was first published in 2003. Suburbanizing the Masses examines how collective forms of transport have contributed to the spatial and social evolution of towns and cities in various countries since the mid nineteenth century. Divided into two sections, the volume develops first the classic tradition on transport and the city, public transport's 'impact' on urban development. The contextualisation of transport is one important factor in the historical debates surrounding urban development. As well as analysing the discourse employed by urban political and business elites in favour of public transport, these contributions show the degree to which practice often fell short of ideals. The second section tackles the professional paradigms of urban transport: the circulation of traffic in cities and the technological modes appropriate to its realization. In particular these contributions explore the paradigms held by professional planners and managers, and the political classes associated with them. From a variety of perspectives Suburbanizing the Masses demonstrates the continuing relevance of socio-historical inquiry on the relationship between public transport and urban development. By differentiating between the many roles of urban transport in the nineteenth century, it confirms that public transport was not directly linked to urban growth, and instead often had only a limited effect on the wider urban structure. Suburbanizing the Masses forces a reassessment of the received historiography that maintains cheap public transport was essential to the spectacular growth of cites in the nineteenth century.

"Twenty years after publication, Urban Fortunes remains the best book on urban sociology around. Starting from a political economy analysis, Logan and Molotch develop a picture of the formative processes creating the contemporary American city while managing to avoid the pitfalls of determinism."—Susan Fainstein, Harvard University

A major three-volume bibliography, including an additional supplement, of an annotated listing of American Studies monographs published between 1900 and 1988.

Since its opening in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge has become an icon for the beauty and prosperity of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a symbol of engineering achievement. Constructing the bridge posed political and financial challenges that were at least as difficult as those faced by the project's builders. To meet these challenges, northern California boosters created a new kind of agency: an autonomous, self-financing special district. The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District developed into a powerful organization that shaped the politics and government of the Bay Area as much as the bridge shaped its physical development. From the moment of the bridge district's incorporation in 1928, its managers pursued their own agenda. They used all the resources at their disposal to preserve their control over the bridge, cultivating political allies, influencing regional policy, and developing an ambitious public relations program. Undaunted by charges of mismanagement and persistent efforts to turn the bridge (as well as its lucrative tolls) over to the state, the bridge district expanded into mass transportation, taking on ferry and bus operations to ensure its survival to this day. Drawing on previously unavailable archives, Paying the Toll gives us an inside view of the world of high-stakes development, cronyism, and bureaucratic power politics that have surrounded the Golden Gate Bridge since its inception.

This book critiques and extends the analysis of power in the classic, Who Rules America?, on the fiftieth anniversary of its original publication in 1967—and through its subsequent editions. The chapters, written especially for this book by twelve sociologists and political scientists, provide fresh insights and new findings on many contemporary topics, among them the concerted attempt to privatize public schools; foreign policy and the growing role of the military-industrial component of the power elite; the successes and failures of union challenges to the power elite; the ongoing and increasingly global battles of a major sector of agribusiness; and the surprising details of how those who hold to the egalitarian values of social democracy were able to tip the scales in a bitter conflict within the power elite itself on a crucial banking reform in the aftermath of the Great Recession. These social scientists thereby point the way forward in the study of power, not just in the United States, but globally. A brief introductory chapter situates Who Rules America? within the context of the most visible theories of power over the past fifty years—pluralism, Marxism, Millsian elite theory, and historical institutionalism. Then, a chapter by G. William Domhoff, the author of Who Rules America?, takes us behind the scenes on how the original version was researched and written, tracing the evolution of the book in terms of new concepts and research discoveries by Domhoff himself, as well as many other power structure researchers, through the 2014 seventh edition. Readers will find differences of opinion and analysis from chapter to chapter. The authors were encouraged to express their views independently and frankly. They do so in an admirable and useful fashion that will stimulate everyone’s thinking on these difficult and complex issues, setting the agenda for future studies of power.

Critics warn that corporate leaders have too much influence over American politics. Mark Mizruchi worries they exert too little. American CEOs have abdicated their civic responsibilities in helping the government address national challenges, with grave consequences for society. A sobering assessment of the dissolution of America’s business class.