How States Shaped Postwar America

Nicholas Dagen Bloom argues for the centrality of state power in postwar American urban life. In the face of economic and demographic restructurings and the devolution of federal power, states sparked developments in urban planning, transportation, higher education, housing and environmental management. In particular, Nelson Rockefeller's governorship of New York demonstrated the power of an engaged administrative state to condition the fabric and nuance of everyday life. Rockefeller established long-lived bureaucracies that address social health, transportation, human rights, housing, and all the other components of a well-functioning and empathetic state. Many of those innovations came to influence or resonate with similar developments in other states and their cities as well.