Instant Cities: Urbanization and the Rise of San Francisco and Denver

In Instant Cities, Gunther Barth describes the rapid ascent of San Francisco and Denver, and why their sudden growth is unique among urban centers of the United States. While Barth tells a story of two Western cities, he utilizes a broad scope of evidence in his study. In addition to comparing the two western cities to older eastern models such as colonial Boston and Philadelphia, he also draws comparisons to ancient Rome and Alexandria. Barth draws from a wealth of primary and secondary sources to formulate his argument, with an emphasis on contemporary newspapers, manuscripts, and public documents. Unlike the vast majority of urban places, San Francisco and Denver achieved the status of urban centers in a matter of decades instead of centuries. Barth credits such an achievement to the collision of three factors: gold, human drive, and technology. The presence of gold provided each place an immediate source of wealth and an enticement for settlers to migrate. The settlers who came west in search of wealth, in the process displacing earlier inhabitants such as Native Americans, trappers, and fur traders, brought with them a focused determination and a desire to improve their status in life. These entrepreneurs thrived on risk and change while remaining focused on producing wealth. Those who failed to extract wealth from nature sought to extract wealth from the other settlers. Barth indicates that the emergence and introduction of new technology such as the railroad and the telegraph, transformed San Francisco and Denver from isolated instant cities where riches were sought, into stable sustainable urban places that fostered a sense of community and operated within a national network. Through the incorporation of technology, these instant cities evolved into communities. Those interested in the historiography of the American West should find Barth's study captivating, as he touches on multiple issues over which much argument has taken place. Barth defines the West simply as the region west of the Missouri River, not the Mississippi, the Rockies, the 98th meridian, or any other number of definitions. One will find threads of both Turnerian and New Western thought throughout his study. Barth discusses a moving frontier line and uninhabited lands, but he is also careful to point out the important roles played by the earlier Native and Spanish populations, while including discussions of culture, society, and the environment. He discusses the great achievements made by the settlers who transformed isolated wildernesses into urban places, but does not neglect the cost of such a transformation. Barth's West is both a process and a place. Gunter Barth's Instant Cities is a balanced and multifaceted account of western transformation. In what initially appears to be a focused study, Barth manages to expand and incorporate various aspects of broader historical studies. Instant Cities is a valuable contribution to the study of hist

A niche is filled in this interesting book and is so acknowledged by the author in the preface when he writes "At the outset I was struck by the scant attention given to the rise of the city in the major texts of Western history." He goes on to add that urbanization and its shaping of people's thoughts was on his mind as he collected data for this project. He defines "instant city" as "a type of settlement that condensed the protracted growth from wilderness to city into the span of a generation." Two Western cities which illustrate the point most clearly are San Francisco and Denver. It was the attraction of easy riches that caused the masses to create the two cities. The author tells us that originally location was important in a city's founding, but as technological advances enabled people to control their environment, location became less important. The settlers of these two urban centers brought patterns of city living with them to the American West. The concept of "instant cities" is traced back historically to the fusion of Europe and Asia, as built upon Greek culture. Barth writes "Alexander's instant cities were cultural and political outposts ruled by colonial governors responsible to Alexander" (p. 11). On the eastern U.S. coast, Washington, D. C. is identified as an instant city that grew out of the political need for a national capital (p. 37). In chapter 2, Salt Lake City is described as the first instant city in western U.S. This is a well-research book that gives insight to rapid urban growth as it spotlights two U.S. metropolitan areas.