In praise of ordinary choices.(urban history)

The problem with most writing about cities is that people go out and say, "Here's what I like." And the corollary to that is usually, "This is what cities ought to be." Urban historians have tended to share certain tastes common to a Northeastern city-dwelling elite, and have been too hasty to dismiss other choices.

Urban history traditionally has been about elites at the very center. It's an almost exclusive focus. How can academics be so uninterested in where the vast majority of people live? What kind of amazing blinkered vision could produce this?

The academic world has cared about only a few parts of the city. That is so narrow-minded, and also ...