Speakers Bureau Speaker
Philip VanderMeer, Mesa
Philip VanderMeer is Associate Professor of history at ASU, and his research and teaching emphasize American community and urban development. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in community history and Southwestern urban history. The author of two studies of postwar Phoenix; Phoenix Rising (2002) and "Postwar Phoenix" in Provincias Internas: Continuing Frontiers (2007) -- he is currently finishing a full study of Phoenix entitled The Making of a Desert City.
Collapse and Rebirth of Downtown Phoenix, 1945 – 2007
This talk will discuss the changing shape and focus of downtown Phoenix in the context of larger national changes. The structure of the "traditional" Phoenix downtown crumbled rapidly between 1945 and the late 1960s. Efforts to halt this collapse and then to revive the area were quite unsuccessful until the 1980s, when Mayor Terry Goddard helped revitalize this task. Major changes have occurred in the last decade and reflect an upsurge in ideas and energy, but to understand this transformation, one must see it in terms of the larger national context.
• Host organization provides a projector and screen for a PowerPoint presentation.
Transforming Desert Visions: The Growth of Phoenix, 1860 – 2006
This presentation addresses the basic question: why did Phoenix grow? During its first eight decades, residents of the Salt River Valley sought to transform it into an agricultural paradise, and Phoenix residents strove to make their city into an oasis that resembled communities across the nation. World War II stimulated new ideas about the city’s future, as well as economic, political, and social changes that helped build one of the nation’s largest cities. Why did Phoenix do better than other cities seeking the same goal? What are the consequences of that success?
• Host organization provides a projector and screen for a PowerPoint presentation.
