Since the 1960s, public attention has been drawn increasingly towards the thematic link between historic preservation and urban planning. Nowadays, the organized historic preservation movement in the USA is more than a mere yearning for history : it represents an active and integral part of urban planning in US cities. In order to approach these planning, economic, and social issues in the field of historic preservation, this book analyzes a variety of interdisciplinary methods, focusing on four selected historic districts within the central business districts of Philadelphia and Boston (in the north) and Charleston and Savannah (in the south).