Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 (Paperback)
November 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Green Building Products
Review
“Dolores Hayden is a unique urban pathfinder. She hunts down the relationships among popular aspirations, big urban players, and the everyday experience of domestic life. In this book she traces the history of our suburban metropolises, guiding the reader through seven easily recognized on-the-setreet patterns. The end of the history is the now when the government and private corporations anxously push to maintain our cities of consumption. And yes, she has found a way leadin (more…)
Building Suburbia is a capable synthesis of historical and recent scholarship on the development of the suburbs in America. Hayden, a professor of architecture and urbanism and professor of American Studies at Yale, knows what she is talking about. It was clear to me that this book is written for a general, rather then specialized audience.
Hayden’s writting style is easy to understand, and she provides multiple in text illustrations and photographs to illuminate the text. The book tracks the historical development of suburbs in time (the subtitle is “Green Fields and Urban Growth 1820-2000.) She starts with “Borderlands”, then covers “Picturesque Enclaves”, “Streetcar Buildouts”, “Mail-Order and Self-Built Suburbs”, “Sitcom Subrurbs”, “Edge Nodes” and “Rural Fringes”. This historical approach is book ended by an introduction with two chapters and a conclusion with two chapters.
Hayden includes excellent end notes and a selected bibliography that is worthwhile to have on your shelf. Since this book was written in 2003, the bibliography is chock full of RECENT books on urban studies that allow the student or casual reader to follow up in any number of directions.
Worth checking out.
Ordered about two weeks before class started and the book came promptly and in good condition