Chasing Smokestacks: Local, State, and Regional Economic Development Policies in the U.S., 1930-2000
FAIN: FA-50013-04
Colin H. Gordon
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)
State and local economic development policies are one of the most pervasive forms of government intervention in the modern economy. While such policies have received a great deal of attention from policy analysts and development professionals, they have been virtually ignored by historians: we know very little about the origins of such policies, the incentives behind them, or the ways in which they developed over time. My research will focus on the historical origins of local tax, fiscal, infrastructure and labor policies. This application seeks support for archival research in the records of local and state development agencies, private business organizations, and corporate records. Such a study will illuminate private, local, state, and regional motives and strategies, and contribute to our understanding of the ways in which public and private interests negotiate a "business climate" in various settings.
Associated Products
Mapping Decline (Book)Title: Mapping Decline
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: Mapping Decline examines the causes and consequences of St. Louis's urban crisis. It traces the complicity of private real estate restrictions, local planning and zoning, and federal housing policies in the "white flight" of people and wealth from the central city. And it traces the inadequacy—and often sheer folly—of a generation of urban renewal, in which even programs and resources aimed at eradicating blight in the city ended up encouraging flight to the suburbs. The urban crisis, as this study of St. Louis makes clear, is not just a consequence of economic and demographic change; it is also the most profound political failure of our recent history.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14445.html
Publisher: PennPress
Type: Single author monograph
Lost in Space: Confessions of an Accidental Geographer (Article)Title: Lost in Space: Confessions of an Accidental Geographer
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: This article reflects on the author’s experience with historical GIS
during the research of his 2008 manuscript Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City. It assesses, in turn, the utility of maps and their role in historical research and writing; the investigatory and explanatory potential of historical GIS; and some of the limits and pitfalls of historical mapping.
Year: 2011
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 5.1 (2011): 1–22
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the fate of the American City (Web Resource)Title: Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the fate of the American City
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: This web project accompanies the book Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (PennPress, 2008). It presents four interactive series of maps, each touching on a major theme developed in the book.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://mappingdecline.lib.uiowa.edu/St. Louis Map (Web Resource)Title: St. Louis Map
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: This WorldMap project accompanies the book Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (PennPress, 2008). It presents a series of maps, each touching on a major theme developed in the book.
Year: 2012
Primary URL:
http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/866Roundtable on “Mapping Decline" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Roundtable on “Mapping Decline"
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: summary presentation of major themes of book
Date: 10/01/2008
Conference Name: Social Science History Association
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City
Abstract: major themes from book
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 11/01/2010
Location: Brown University
The Geography of Inequality in St. Louis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: The Geography of Inequality in St. Louis
Abstract: major themes from book
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 01/29/2011
Location: St. Louis
Making St. Louis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Making St. Louis
Abstract: plenary address, Transportation Engineering Association of Metropolitan St Louis
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 11/03/2009
Location: Maryland Heights, MO
Justice in the American Metropolis: The St. Louis Case (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Justice in the American Metropolis: The St. Louis Case
Author: Todd Swanstrom
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: bus tour and presentation
Date: 06/07/2009
Community Decline and Development in Greater St. Louis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Community Decline and Development in Greater St. Louis
Abstract: invited talk at George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University,
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 03/17/2009
Location: St. Louis
St. Louis Blues: Mapping the Decline of an American City (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: St. Louis Blues: Mapping the Decline of an American City
Abstract: invited talk at New School
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 03/07/2009
Location: New York
St. Louis: Historical Perspectives and Current Challenges (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: St. Louis: Historical Perspectives and Current Challenges
Abstract: plenary address, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council Annual Meeting, November 2008
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 11/11/2008
Location: St. Louis
St. Louis Blues: Mapping the Decline of an American City (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: St. Louis Blues: Mapping the Decline of an American City
Abstract: talk at St. Louis Community College
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 11/08/2008
Location: St. Louis
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City
Abstract: themes from book
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 03/29/2012
Location: Columbia, MO
Mapping Decline: The Urban Crisis in Historical Perspective (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Mapping Decline: The Urban Crisis in Historical Perspective
Abstract: East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, June 2008
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 06/06/2008
Location: St. Louis
Blight and Redevelopment: Historical Perspectives (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Blight and Redevelopment: Historical Perspectives
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: at the Fourth Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, William and Mary Law School (October 2007)
Date: 10/11/2007
St Louis Blues: Public Policy and the Urban Crisis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: St Louis Blues: Public Policy and the Urban Crisis
Abstract: plenary address at the annual meeting of the Economic Analysis and Research Network, St. Louis, September 2006
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 09/11/2006
Location: St. Louis
Race and Realty in Greater St. Louis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Race and Realty in Greater St. Louis
Abstract: Columbia University seminar on Twentieth Century Politics and Society, January 2006
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 01/12/2006
Location: New York
Mapping St. Louis (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Mapping St. Louis
Abstract: at Missouri Supreme Court Historical Society, November 2005
Author: Colin Gordon
Date: 11/11/2005
Location: Jefferson City, MO
Roundtable on “Mapping Decline,” (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Roundtable on “Mapping Decline,”
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: major themes from book
Date: 05/11/2008
Conference Name: Policy History Conference
Race and Space in the Urban Crisis: The Case of St. Louis (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Race and Space in the Urban Crisis: The Case of St. Louis
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: themes from book
Date: 11/11/2007
Conference Name: Social Science History Association
Mapping St. Louis (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Mapping St. Louis
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: Poster Session
Date: 01/08/2007
Mapping St. Louis (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Mapping St. Louis
Author: Colin Gordon
Abstract: Policy History conference, themes from book
Date: 06/06/2006
Conference Name: Policy History