Reforming Philadelphia examines the cyclical efforts of insurgents to change the city’s government over nearly 350 years. Political scientist Richardson Dilworth tracks reformers as they create a new purpose for the city or reshape the government to reflect emerging ideas. He provides a new framework for understanding the evolving relationship between national politics and local, city politics.
 
Richardson Dilworth is Professor of Politics and Head of the Department of Politics at Drexel University. He is the author of The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy, editor-in-chief of the Oxford Bibliographies in Urban Studies, and the editor or coeditor of nine books, including Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia (Temple) and, most recently, with Timothy Weaver, How Ideas Shape Urban Political Development.
 
Copies of the book will be available for purchase. This event is free, in-person and open to the public.

This program is sponsored by Friends in the City (FitC) and the Philadelphia City Institute Library.