Cities on the Plains: The Evolution of Urban Kansas

From Abilene to Wichita and beyond a constellation of cities glitters across the fertile plains of Kansas. Their history is entwined with that of the state as a whole and their size and status are rarely questioned. Yet as James Shortridge reveals the evolution of urban Kansas remains a largely untold story of competition rivalry and metropolitan dreams. Cities on the Plains relates the history of Kansass larger communities from the 1850s to the present. The first book to provide a comprehensive comparative account of an entire states urban development it shows how Kansass current hierarchy of cities and urban development emerged from a complex and ongoing series of promotional strategies. Railroads the mining industry the cattle trade-all exercised their influence over where and when these settlements were originally established. Drawing on rich historical research filtered through cultural geography Shortridge looks at the 118 communities that ever achieved a population of 2 500 and unravels the many factors that influenced the growth of urban Kansas. He tells how mercantilism dominated urban thinking in territorial days until after statehood when cities competed for the capital prisons universities and other institutions. He also shows how geography and size were employed by entrepreneurs and government officials to prepare strategies for economic development. And he describes how the railroads especially promoted the founding of cities in the nineteenth centuryand how this system has fared since 1950 in the face of globalization and the growth of interstate highways. Throughout the book Shortridge demonstrates how cities competed for dominance within their regions and he solves mysteries of growth and stagnation by evaluating them according to their abilities to respond to change. Sharing anecdotes along with insights he tells why Wichita is “the unexpected metropolis ” why the citizens of Leavenworth thought a prison was a better urban asset than a college and how Garden City grew despite the plans of the Santa Fe Railroad. Cities on the Plains provides an incisive new look not only at Kansas history but also at how American cities in general have evolved over the last century and a half.