For the city as a whole

For the City as a Whole is an attempt to link the actions and public statements of civic leaders to their perceptions of the city and what it might become. Robert B. Fairbanks argues that for much of the first half of the century, civic leaders and government officials thought of Dallas as a unit, something greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, they consistently employed strategies that emphasized the needs of the city as a whole over the wishes of particular groups or neighborhoods.

Fairbanks is interested in looking again at an era when public discourse emphasized the current and long-term good of the city, as opposed to the needs of its inhabitants.