Cities on the Plains

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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 Kansas's larger communities from the 1850s to the present. The first book to provide a comprehensive, comparative account of an entire state's urban development, it shows how Kansas's 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. 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 century--and 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 themaccording 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 plan