Building Suburbia

Description:

For almost two centuries Americans have been moving to the suburbs in search of affordable family housing, unspoiled nature, and small-town sociability--only to find that their leafy new neighborhoods are part of the growing metropolitan sprawl. It is to this contested cultural landscape, where most Americans now live, that Dolores Hayden draws our attention.From nineteenth-century utopian communities and elite picturesque enclaves to early twentieth-century streetcar subdivisions and owner-built tracts to the vast postwar sitcom suburbs and the subsidized malls and office parks that followed (on a scale that earlier builders could never have imagined), Hayden reveals the cultural and economic patterns that have brought us to the present. She explores the interplay of natural and built environments, the complex antagonisms between real-estate developers and suburban residents, the hidden role of federal government, and the religious and ideological overtones of the "American dream" embedded in the suburbs. Hayden asks hard questions about who has benefited from the suburban building process and about "smart" growth and "green" building. And she makes a strong case for the revitalization of existing neighborhoods in place of unchecked new growth on rural fringes. Few readers will see our ubiquitous suburbs in the same way again.From the Hardcover edition.

subjects: Architecture,  Nonfiction,  Sociology,  Vie de la banlieue,  Stedelijke omgeving,  Urbanisation,  Land use,  Utilisation du Sol,  Banlieues,  Metropolitan areas,  Urbanization,  Suburbs,  Vorort,  Maisons de banlieue,  Suburbanisatie,  History,  Suburban homes,  Stadtplanung,  Histoire,  Promotion immobilière,  Real estate development,  Suburban life,  Agglomérations urbaines,  Land use, united states,  Suburbs--history,  Suburbs--united states--history,  Urbanization--history,  Urbanization--united states--history,  Land use--history,  Land use--united states--history,  Real estate development--history,  Real estate development--united states--history,  Suburban homes--history,  Suburban homes--united states--history,  Metropolitan areas--history,  Metropolitan areas--united states--history,  Suburban life--history,  Suburban life--united states--history,  Ht352.u5 h39 2003,  307.76/0973