What critic Lewis Mumford has vilified as a disorganized mass of formless low-grade urban tissue and what Katherine Lee Bates enshrined in America the Beautiful as alabaster cities . . . undimmed by human tears provides the subject of this bibliography: American cities and towns. The task of reconciling these two contrary views has fallen within the province of students and scholars of the American urban landscape. To both facilitate this exciting work and to advance understanding of the urban experience, Young has carefully assembled a considerable body of graduate level research on urban America to create this groundbreaking bibliography of doctoral dissertations on the subject. The 4,314 citations include titles pertaining to the historical dimension of the urban experience and all subject areas--culture, economics, education, ethnicity, health, politics, religion, and social structure--are reflected here, although studies which summarize contemporary activities or omit historical orientation are not included. The category General Studies has been used for those works that cover more than one city or an entire state and because of the multitude of studies, New York City's boroughs and sections have been classified separately. More than 250 citation entries have supplementary biographical information appended.

The bibliography is divided into two main sections, the citations in Part One are listed alphabetically by state and subdivided by cities and towns. Those cities with more than twenty-five dissertation titles are further subdivided by broad subject descriptions. Of the more than 4,000 entries, the majority address cities and examine 300 towns; and twentieth century claims the preponderance of titles with 3,149. Over 2,000 titles are included for the nineteenth century; 438 for the eighteenth century; and 149 for the seventeenth century. The most popular research subjects were cultural and intellectual life, politics and social policy, education, and ethnic groups. New York City, with over 500 studies, had almost twice as many as its nearest competitor, Chicago. Part Two contains a listing of topical studies under 44 headings, an author index, and a detailed subject index in which thematically similar studies are brought together to complete the work. This bibliography will be an invaluable tool for urban historians, sociologists, planners, economists, and students and scholars in these fields.