ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the study of the growth and development of cities in America. It begins with a common definition of the city. Some scholars treat the city much as would a student of architecture and fasten on the physical structures. Others treat the city as a conglomerate of population, subject to the ebb and flow of demographic pressures and forces. The chapter focuses on the range of political and economic forces that can influence the lives of urban residents and that can shape the destiny of any single urban center. Important research supports the hypothesis of an internal and sequential development of cities in America. The chapter explains that the very character of the institutions of a city is apt to change from one stage to another, with an alternation between political and economic institutions in the part they play in the city-building process.
