Empire of Tomorrow: Seattle and the Making of Global Capitalism in the 1970s

Abstract

This dissertation recounts the history of Seattle as an imperial city, and in doing so chronicles a larger story about the fate of American global supremacy in the late twentieth century. Whereas the city began the 1970s in economic and political turmoil, it ended the decade as a paragon of new American urbanism, “the most livable city in the United States.” And American power, once found strictly in manufacturing strength and military prowess, was being recomposed in new professional service sectors of trade, research, and technology – sectors that heavily favored Seattle. By examining how working people, community activists, unions, politicians, and business experienced these transformations, this dissertation argues that the fates of both the city of Seattle and American empire were deeply entwined. Faced with crisis, their renewed fortunes required new formations of class and race that would allow American elites to defeat the strength of organized labor and social movements while tapping into growing circuits of global capital.