Touching on aging central cities, technoburbs, and the ongoing conflict between inner-city poverty and urban boosterism, The Twentieth-Century American City offers a broad, accessible overview of America's persistent struggle for a better city.

Jon C. Teaford is professor emeritus of history at Purdue University. He is the author of Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985, The Metropolitan Revolution: The Rise of Post-Urban America, and The American Suburb: The Basics.