On the one hand, Baltimore was resolutely parochial, split by curious political quarrels over issues as minor as loose pigs. The city's longtime domination by the general assembly-and the corresponding weakness of its municipal authority-forced residents to adopt the private and extra-governmental institutions that shaped early Baltimore. Revealing how residents at large engage (and disengage) with one another across an expansive agenda of issues and conflicts, Crenson shows how politics helped form this complex city's personality.Ĭrenson provocatively argues that Baltimore's many quirks are likely symptoms of urban underdevelopment.

From its founding in 1729 up through the recent past, Crenson follows Baltimore's political evolution from an empty expanse of marsh and hills to a complicated city with distinct ways of doing business. Crenson, a distinguished political scientist and Baltimore native, examines the role of politics and race throughout Baltimore's history. More recently, the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody has prompted Baltimoreans-and the entire nation-to focus critically on the rich and tangled narrative of black-white relations in Baltimore, where slavery once existed alongside the largest community of free blacks in the United States. But for much of the nineteenth century, violence and disorder plagued the city. How politics and race shaped Baltimore's distinctive disarray of cultures and subcultures.Ĭharm City or Mobtown? People from Baltimore glory in its eccentric charm, small-town character, and North-cum-South culture.

Baltimore by Matthew A. Crenson