How politics and race shaped Baltimore's distinctive disarray of
cultures and subcultures.
Charm City or Mobtown? People from Baltimore glory in its eccentric
charm, small-town character, and North-cum-South culture. But for
much of the nineteenth century, violence and disorder plagued the
city. More recently, the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody
has prompted Baltimoreans--and the entire nation--to focus critically
on the rich and tangled narrative of black-white relations in
Baltimore, where slavery once existed alongside the largest community
of free blacks in the United States.
Matthew A. Crenson, a distinguished political scientist and Baltimore
native, examines the role of politics and race throughout Baltimore's
history. From its founding in 1729 up through the recent past,
Crenson follows Baltimore's political evolution from an empty expanse
of marsh and hills to a complicated city with distinct ways of doing
business. Revealing how residents at large engage (and disengage)
with one another across an expansive agenda of issues and conflicts,
Crenson shows how politics helped form this complex city's
personality.
Crenson provocatively argues that Baltimore's many quirks are likely
symptoms of urban underdevelopment. The city's longtime domination by
the general assembly--and the corresponding weakness of its municipal
authority--forced residents to adopt the private and
extra-governmental institutions that shaped early Baltimore. On the
one hand, Baltimore was resolutely parochial, split by curious
political quarrels over issues as minor as loose pigs. On the other,
it was keenly attuned to national politics: during the Revolution,
for instance, Baltimoreans were known for their comparative
radicalism. Crenson describes how, as Baltimore and the nation grew,
whites competed with blacks, slave and free, for menial and low-skill
work. He also explores how the urban elite thrived by avoiding,
wherever possible, questions of slavery versus freedom--just as
wealthier Baltimoreans, long after the Civil War and emancipation,
preferred to sidestep racial controversy.
Peering into the city's 300-odd neighborhoods, this fascinating
account holds up a mirror to Baltimore, asking whites in particular
to reexamine the past and accept due responsibility for future racial
progress.
