As indicated by his subtitle, John F. McDonald has written an ambitious text aiming to chart the expansion, decline, and recovery of America cities over the last half-century. Topically, Urban America thus overlaps with volumes such as Jon Teaford's The Rough Road to Renaissance (1990) and Robert Beauregard's recent When America Became Suburban (2006). Urban America, however, is a very different book from these precursors. McDonald identifies 29 metropolitan areas (17 in the Northeast, six each in the South and West) and methodically tracks demographic, economic, and housing indicators from 1950 to the near-present. Mainly relying on U.S. Census data, McDonald brackets the 20 years from 1950 to 1970 as an era of growth, 1970 to 1990 as a period of crisis, and the nearly 20 years since 1990 as a time of recovery.
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机译：如副标题所示，约翰·F·麦当劳（John F. McDonald）撰写了一篇雄心勃勃的文字，旨在描绘出过去半个世纪以来美国城市的扩张，衰退和复苏。因此，《美国都市》与《乔纳·特福德》（Jon Teaford）的《复兴之路》（1990）和罗伯特·博雷加德（Robert Beauregard）的《当美国成为郊区》（2006）等作品重合在一起。然而，《美国都市》与这些前身是一本完全不同的书。麦当劳确定了29个都会区（东北17个，南部和西部各6个），并有条不紊地跟踪了从1950年到现在的人口，经济和住房指标。麦当劳主要依靠美国人口普查数据，将1950年至1970年的20年视为增长时代，将1970年至1990年视为危机时期，并将1990年以来的近20年归为复苏时期。
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