Robert B. Fairbanks

Robert B. Fairbanks is an urban historian at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has written and edited 6 books and published more than twenty book chapters and articles on urban history, with special emphasis on low-cost housing reform in the U.S., as well as urban renewal, public housing and political history. His most recent publications focus on the urban Southwest and his next projects explore efforts to improve downtown Fort Worth and the emergence of suburban cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he developed an interest in cities by accompanying his parents (both educators) to Cleveland, Ohio on a train and spending the day in the city as they attended the conference. In his mid teens he would also take a bus to Pittsburgh in the morning, spend the day exploring steel city, then watch the Pirates play his beloved Chicago Cubs at night. Already interested in urban American, it made sense for him to focus on urban history when he took a Ph.D. in history at the University of Cincinnati. He is former Editor for the Americas for Planning Perspectives and has served on numerous boards including the Urban History Association and the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.