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How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America. By Cari Abbott. Albuquetque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008. x + 347 pp. Maps, figures, notes, bibliographical essay, index. $34.95.
This impressive survey of westetn urban history demonstrates How Cities Won the West. Its original conceptualization and petsuasive argument are supported by an impressive amount of evidence. It should be considered as the "last stand" among urban historians who still feel the need to argue for the central role of urbanization in the development of the West.
Carl Abbott demonstrates that in the nineteenth century several kinds of towns and cities-raw outposts, gateways, industrial towns, irrigation towns (seeking to be the centet...