By the mid-19th century, the U.S. was quickly becoming a nation of cities. These urban centers, unlike their 21st-century counterparts, came to be seen as centers of economic, social and cultural life. And these cities, as they attracted more and more residents, needed a variety of goods and services to accommodate such massive growth. The development of such things—including roads, schools and sewer systems—often occurred in fits and starts, putting on display the differences (racial, ethnic and economic) that informed how American cities came to look and function.
Carl Smith’s wonderful City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago (University of Chicago Press) adds a new chapter to this often-told story of rampant urbanization. Focusing on the development of waterworks systems in three major cities, Smith argues that the arduous process of getting clean water to residents helped to create the concept of an interdependent, collective urban citizenry. Public interest came to trump private gain as vast amounts of resources were expended to perform incredible feats of engineering and construction. In Chicago, for example, observers marveled as city officials built a tunnel directly into Lake Michigan, all to bring water to the city’s burgeoning population.
Thankfully, Smith does not get caught up too much in the nuts and bolts of such efforts. Instead, he usefully suggests “that a city is as much an infrastructure of ideas
