Urban Cultures of/in the United States

This book collects the efforts of a team of scholars working at the University of Torino under the auspices of the WWS (World-Wide Style) Project. Focusing on diverse areas of inquiry into the transformations of the American city, the essays in this volume try to provide perspectives for un-derstanding the complexity of urban cultures in the United States in the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. Organized thematically, this book includes essays in three main areas. The first includes studies in U.S. history and history of ideas of at the turn of the 20th century, in light of its migra-tion/immigration processes as well as in its representations of national greatness and cultural he-gemony as reflected in World’s Fairs. The second area covers analyses of American literature in the double perspective of the recent emergence of a new form of “global novel,” as well as the de-velopments of new subgenres of urban fiction. A third area on inquiry focuses of new practices of organized religion in North America arising from the regionalization of the American metropolis in recent decades.