Jackson, Kenneth T.

Kenneth T. Jackson, one of the most prominent U.S. urban historians, has strongly influenced the agenda of the field and also made active collaborative and institutional contributions. His work covers the broad sweep of U.S. urban history and more specific topics, especially New York City, where he is Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences at Columbia University. Throughout his career, Jackson has shown an ongoing concern with linking the processes of urban organization and form with larger historical questions.

Born in 1939, Jackson earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1966 and a year later established his interest in the conflicts between social ideologies and urban life in his first book, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 (1967). His most widely read work remains Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (1985). The book addresses belief systems and public policies that contributed to the rise of the suburbs, along with the built and spatial forms that resulted. Jackson argues that the dominance of suburbia in the United States can be attributed to a constellation of causes ranging from the ideological to the economic. He especially sees economic forces working together to make suburban housing less expensive in the United States than elsewhere, with four factors being dominant: inexpensive transportation; abundant, cheap land; government subsidies for loans and infrastructure; and low-cost construction methods. In the years since its publication, this broad interpretive synthesis has encouraged much subsequent scholarship and remains founda-tional for the study of urban history.

In addition to scholarly monographs and articles, Jackson has made numerous collaborative contributions to the field and worked to promote organizational and institutional development. His work with photographer Camilo Jose Vergara resulted in several exhibitions and the book Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (1989). Among his many editorships, particularly notable for urban history is the monumental Encyclopedia of New York City (1995). More recently, Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (2007), coedited by Hilary Ballon, calls for a reevaluation of that long-maligned city builder.

Institutionally, Jackson has contributed actively to urban history and U.S. history generally. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he played a major role in the Columbia University Seminar on the City, an important forum for discussion and scholarship. He has also headed several professional organizations, notably the Urban History Association and the Organization of American Historians, and he is currently president of the New York Historical Society and director of the Lehman Center for American History. Finally, Jackson's many documentary and media appearances have helped bring urban history to a wide and diverse audience.