jason carr November 30, 1998 HIST 5302 Miller, Zane L. and Bruce Tucker. Changing Plans for America's Cities: Cincinnati's Over the Rhine and Twentieth Century Urbanism. The Ohio State University. Columbus: 1997. This book is about changed a priori notions of the city illustrated by an overview of the changing plans for the Over The Rhine section of Cincinnatti. The authors maintain that the former belief about cities was that the city itself was the main object of concern, that the creation and maintenance of a cosmopolitan environment was tantamount. Special interests were subordinate to this over arching goal. Zane Miller holds that after World War II social engineering methods used to secure the cosmopolitangoal became compared unfavorably to European totalitarian social control tactics. The response was a move toward special interest politics in which the needs of groups or sub-groups were the main players on the civic stage. In this new setting the city is transformed from central object to a set- piece, a locale in which to enact one's lifestyle, one's self actualization. Miller argues for a return to an enlightened version of the prior model, in which "human empathy" provides the main impetus for "'peaceful co- existence and creative cooperation'" (166). Miller cites as central the "ideals inscribed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States" (168). Miller draws upon a rich selection of sources for his work. His most objective use of sources seems to be in his reliance on secondary sources, including previously published work of his own. Perhaps his studied familiarity with these secondary sources lends a steadying hand to his interpretation. When working with primary sources he relies heavily on original city plans (such as the Cincinnatti Planning Commission's projects, proposals and policies), meeting minutes, and local newspapers such as the Cincinnatti Enquirer. The issue of reliability here becomes problematic, and may divide the readership into two camps: those who believe Miller's extensive use of civic meeting minutes is adequate to support his analysis of intention and emotion, and those who believe some of his text contains untenable conjecture. How could Miller know that a given situation "shook Lazarus, who now wondered if he could count on the city... (117)", that "Gray and his allies fought back desperately (135)", that "Forusz's handiwork received short shrift from ... Hubert Guest (94)." In these situations Miller sounds more like one of his politicos rather than a historian.. . Perhaps to leaven his conjectural content, Miller provides a conservative and orthodox structure for his material. In time honored form, he starts in the much missed past, the civic minded pre World War II days. He then works forward chronologically up to the 1980s, dividing the time (artificially ) into relatively coherent periods such as "Integration Through Historic Preservation, 1972- 1980 ." The final chapter, "Epilogue: Eclipsing the Public Interest," provides a redeeming conclusion. In this section, Miller steps back from the chaos and rivalry surrounding Over the Rhine and allows the reader to see his prescription for the future. The only weakness of the chapter is Miller's insistence that self actualization is mutually exclusive with unity or empathy. Some Eastern models (and the Western esoteric model) prescribe self actualization as a means to universal empathy. Conscious living leads directly to a Self-less-ness which sees all humans (indeed, everything everywhere) as essential part of the greater whole, a goal which Miller seems to share. Even given this philosophical shortsightedness, the Epilogue is strong enough to be excerpted or anthologized on its own. This book confirmed my fears that discourse on city planning is as obnoxious in other locations as it is in Dallas. Reading this book was like listening to a Dallas City Council meeting (and I only turn off WRR during Wednesdays when the DCC is in full confrontative swing). The actors in the Over the Rhine story might as well have been guests on Jerry Springer with all the positioning, politicing, name calling and physical violence. After reading this work I have grown more sympathetic to Frank Lloyd Wright's quote that the only proper plan for a particular decaying city was to abandon it completely (hardly Miller's intent). With the exception of the instructive Epilogue, the book's insistence on play by play infighting was irritating and uninteresting to anyone with interest outside Cincinnattian history or Foucaultian power analysis. I will recommend against this work, and will consciously attempt to avoid subjecting myself to similar works in the future. Would my reaction be White Flight on the literary level? http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/uta/