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Title: Metropolitan Areas Study Source Material, 1959-63

ID: 21/1/15

Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Institute of Government and Public Affairs

Extent: 12.0 cubic feet

Arrangement: Alphabetically by Metropolitan Area and according to outline thereunder

Languages: English [eng]

Metropolitan Areas Study Source Material including newspaper clippings, interviews, maps, brochures, reports, proceedings, research papers, monographs, correspondence, plans, books, survey,s lists, worksheets and summaries relating to local political systems, their place in the estate and federal systems, cultural backgrounds and the impact of the frontier and section.  The material is organized into sections on characteristics of population, political organizations, electoral behavior, intergovernmental relations, interest groups and community issues and problems for Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Belleville-East St. Louis, Joliet, Oak Park, Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford and Springfield metropolitan areas that were used as source material for Daniel J. Elazar's Cities of the Prairie:  The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics (New York:  Basic Books, 1970), 514 pp.

Following a recommendation from the State of Illinois that the University develop a broad program of teaching, research and extension in government and public affairs, the Institute of Government and Public Affairs was established August 5, 1947.¹ It was set up as an autonomous body under a Director responsible to the President of the University.² The Institute conducts policy-oriented research and public service focusing on important areas of state and local government structure and process and emphasizing problems of urbanization. Though the Institute offers no courses, its faculty members teach in academic departments, guide research, and direct intern programs.³

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 44th Report, August 5, 1947, pp. 493-94.

2. Ibid., p. 494.

3. Graduate College Catalog, 1974-1976, p. 81.