The Dallas myth : the making and unmaking of an American city
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The Dallas myth : the making and unmaking of an American city
University of Minnesota Press, c2008
- : pb
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The ninth largest city in the United States, Dallas is exceptional among American cities for the claims of its elites and boosters that it is a "city with no limits" and a "city with no history." Home to the Dallas Cowboys, self-styled as "America's Team," setting for the television series that glamorized its values of self-invention and success, and site of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Dallas looms disproportionately large in the American imagination. Yet it lacks an identity of its own.
In The Dallas Myth, Harvey J. Graff presents a novel interpretation of a city that has proudly declared its freedom from the past. He scrutinizes the city's origin myth and its governance ideology, known as the "Dallas Way," looking at how these elements have shaped Dallas and served to limit democratic participation and exacerbate inequality. Advancing beyond a traditional historical perspective, Graff proposes an original, integrative understanding of the city's urban fabric and offers an explicit critique of the reactionary political foundations of modern Dallas: its tolerance for right-wing political violence, the endemic racism and xenophobia, and a planning model that privileges growth and monumental architecture at the expense of the environment and social justice.
Revealing the power of myths that have defined the city for so long, Graff presents a new interpretation of Dallas that both deepens our understanding of America's urban landscape and enables its residents to envision a more equitable, humane, and democratic future for all.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface: Finding Myself in Dallas
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I. SEARCHING FOR DALLAS
1. Locating the City: Three Icons and Images of "Big D"
2. Constructing a City with No Limits
3. Revising Dallas's Histories
PART II. UNDERSTANDING DALLAS
4. The Dallas Way
5. Tales of Two Cities, North and South, in White, Black, and Brown
6. Mimetic and Monumental Development: Memories Lost and Images Found
7. A City at the Crossroads: Dallas at the Tipping Point
Appendix A. Dallas's Historical Development
Appendix B. Chronology of Dallas History
Notes
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"