Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (2000)
By Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

Synopsis: This book is basically the mission statement for New Urbanism, and is "a primer on how design can help us untangle the mess we have made and once again build and inhabit places worth caring about" (xiv). It's also a "study of two different models of urban growth: the traditional neighborhood and suburban sprawl" (3). This book is a plan for how to create good human environments, and provides an overview of the various problems of sprawl - how they were created by federal funding, how they are maintained, what sprawl looks like, and why it is bad. All of this is intermixed with elements of traditional neighborhood development in order to show a solution to the problem. The tone is definitely defensive, yet they do a good job of defending New Urbanism against critics who mock the "traditional" design. The authors basically say hey, that's what people want, and we have bigger concerns to be thinking about. Authors state that sprawl consists of 1) housing subdivisions, 2) shopping centers, 3) office parks, 4) civic institutions, 5) roadways. The problem is that sprawl separates and isolates all our vital functions, thus this book is an attempt to bring back a sense of holism. We have become fragmented and can combat this via design. The authors propose six rules of Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND): 1) 5-minute walk from edge to cente, 2) a center, 3) good street networks, 4) narrow, versatile streets, 5) mixed-use, 6) special sites for special buildings. The problem is that traditional suburbia lacks choice. We shouldn't let mistaken impulses/design of Modernist architectural solutions prevent us today from designing places to better help society. They say: "experiment on the rich, who can always move out" (53).

Interacts With:

Building Suburbia, Edge City (and Garreau claims edge cities are a way of re-integrating functions, but I'm not totally convinced), The Modern Urban Landscape
Hmm, this could be seen as yet another antidote to the fragmentation/alienation of modernity, as authors claim New Urbanism will bring a sense of re-unification and holism.

A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (2003)
By Lizabeth Cohen

Synopsis: Cohen makes an argument that the postwar period (1945-1975) embodied the rise of the "Consumer's Republic" - that is, "an economy, culture, and politics built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more idealistic goals of greater freedom, democracy, and equality" (7). Utilizing government sources, sociological surveys, marketing research, and historical monographs, Cohen provides a dense history of this era as it connects with the "consumers' republic" notion. The book is divided into: Origins of the Postwar CR (1930s, New Deal and war efforts); Birth of CR (consumption as the American way of life; continuous push for more purchasing and ownership; Black purchasing and boycotting power to voice discontent; The Landscape of Mass Consumption (suburbanization, commercialization, and privatization; feminization of public space via suburban shopping centers usurping downtowns; decline of legal redlining leads to rise of more covert segregation); Political Culture of Mass Consumption (rise of market segmentation and splintering off into more specialized groups; rise of the consumer movement). Cohen argues that the rise of the "consumers' republic" was just as influential as other Cold War issues, in that it was the belief that mass consumption could bring increased prosperity and equality. While it did do some good, it resulted in increased market segmentation and overall fragmentation.

Interesting Specifics:

Discusses the postwar "return to normalcy" push, and thrift as almost "un-America."

The national output of goods and services doubled between 1946 and 1956, and would double again by 1970" (121).

Between 1947 and 1953, the suburban population increased by 43 percent (195).

1948 Supreme Court ruling of Shelley vs. Kraemer found restrictive covenants unconstitutional.

In 1953, 70,000 person Levittown was biggest community in U.S. with no black residents.

Interacts With:

Actually, does kind of interact with books about the rise of mass production in the late nineteenth century and the hopes that this would democratize goods and put everyone on equal footing. Also is kind of connected to the republican ideal that we will all be united by our (relatively) equal access to stuff. It's a very "common man"/anti-elitist kind of idea that Americans seem to love.
Also, can be seen as another example of increased fragmentation of the modern era.
This is what most of my 1950s lecture is derived from.
This book has tons of good info, but is extremely dry and not American studies enough for me.

Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, 1955-1966

Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, 1955-1966 (2002)
By Kirse Granat May

Synopsis: This book examines popular culture representations of California from 1955-1965, especially as focused on white, middle-class suburban teenagers full of wholesome "good clean fun." Focuses on the rise of the CA postwar suburban ideal/CA as land of youth and promise; launch of Disneyland and Disney TV shows such as Davey Crockett and the Mickey Mouse Club; Rebel Without a Cause as showing suburban rebellion and Gidget as showing middle class cuteness; rise of the surf craze with its middle class, white leisured youth lifestyle; rise of the CA aesthetic in fashion; Berkeley and Watts turmoil as complicating the CA image; Reagan for CA governor as way to "restore" wholesome, golden land CA image. Argues that CA created a very sunny, youth-obsessed, wholesome, white, middle-class, leisured, problem-free fantasy image which served to obscure the real racial, class-based, and political tensions and struggles going on in the state. Though events of the 1960s occasionally snapped people out of it, the persistence of this "golden" image continues to shape memories of the past and ideas of the present.

Interesting Specifics:

"California was America's tomorrowland" (5).

"Promoting the virtues of the California teenager suburbanized popular culture" (6).

The CA youth image "represented CA trends and middle class America to the extreme: mobile, capitalistic, outdoorsy, consumer-oriented, involved in harmless, well-meaning fun" (26).

Calls "California Girls" am "aryan anthem" (113).

Interacts With:

To me this book seems almost like a top-down approach - doesn't take a very radical view of popular culture. Seems to imply that pop culture here was used as an escape, that consumers were happily taking what producers wanted them to have and using it as a means of obscuring the painful tensions of the time. So, is that radical or conservative? Seems conservative to me. This book is not about creating one's own meaning, or about multiplicity.

The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disney's Brave New Town

The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disney's Brave New Town (1999)
By Andrew Ross

Synopsis: Andrew Ross spent one year living and doing participant observation in Celebration, Florida in order to see what it was like to live there - to discover its problems, its residents, the general attitude there, its issues, etc. Though it's very American in its desire to start from scratch and create something new, Celebration has its good and bad points, like all other towns. Though Celebration's marketers rely heavily on allusions to "childhood innocence" and "the good old days," it is a high tech place with a progressive alternative public school that parents tend to squabble over (Ross claims it's because they viewed the school as a consumer product that may not have been delivering results). Ross also points out that many residents were angry about the "shoddy construction" of Celebration's homes. Basically, asks a few questions: Can a corporation provide a public realm? is this just another privatopia? What about taste/aesthetics? Is it the shape itself of New Urbanism that increases a sense of community, or is it the people who seek that out?

Interesting Specifics:

Celebration is all about the "iconography of innocence" (16).

Contains an interesting section on model home interiors and market research (pp. 25-27).

Attacks Kunstler for his "crotchety version of orderly civic conduct" (76) and says it is "stuffed with contempt for lower-middle-class taste" (76).

New Urbanism clings hard to the belief that "the design of a physical environment has a fundamental impact upon social behavior" (78).

"The closer people live to one another the more likely they are to guard their privacy" (85).

Pattern books contain all the design a developer could use.

Public schools have long been seen as "the unique source of American national unity" (138).

Spends a lot of time examining Celebration's school, which can be seen as its one utopian element - and which has been, ironically, the source of most of the city's controversy.

Says that the trend of saying "it's not natural to notice skin color" is just the latest from of racism (270).

There's a seedy tourist attraction called "Old Town" right near Celebration.

Interacts With:
Behind the Gates, Brave New Neighborhoods, Building Suburbia

Building Suburbia: Green Fields And Urban Growth, 1820-2000

Building Suburbia: Green Fields And Urban Growth, 1820-2000 (2003)
By Dolores Hayden

Synopsis: This book is a history of suburban development from 1820-2000, with the theme that the suburbs represent the triple dream of "house plus land [nature] plus community" (8). The book looks at what she deems to be seven historic patterns of suburban neighborhood: 1) Borderlands (1820s - ; picturesque style ala Andrew Jackson Downing with a focus on landscape and lots of plants, flowers; Catherine Beecher and the idealization of women's sphere and sacred domesticity); 2) Picturesque Enclaves (1850s - ; "were the most important secular manifestations of a wider communitarian movement whose adherents believed that building a model community in a natural setting led the reform of society" (45); Llewellyn Park, NJ (1857), Riverside, IL (1869, but Frederick Law Olmstead); 3) Streetcar Buildouts (1870s-1910s; followed transport lines yet still close to center; big push for homeownership); 4) Mail-Order and Self-Built Suburbs (1910-; rise of pre-cut catalogue houses ala Sears; increased zoning and planning; federal involvement in the 1930s); 5) Sitcom Suburbs (1940s - ; FHA loans; racism and sexism; Levittown and Lakewood; cult of consumption and domesticity); 6) Edge Nodes (1950s - ; rise of strip malls and car-centric living; Interstate Highway Act; rise of malls; Title VII New Towns like Columbia, MD; chain stores and big boxes; 7) Rural Fringes (rise of telecommuting and the dispersal of homes; rise of "valhallas" - fancy nature-infused spots). Ends with a brief discussion of nostalgia and futurism as embodied by Seaside and Celebration (nostalgia), and "smart houses" and digital houses (futurism) in which technology will play an even bigger role. We should value older suburbs as well, and the search for more democratic forms in the future will be political.

Interacts With:
The Celebration Chronicles, The Modern Urban Landscape, Brave New Neighborhoods, Behind the Gates,
Is a very straightforward and non-political survey of suburban history in the same spirit as Relph's Modern Urban Landscape. Hayden of course does have a little bit of preservationist's bent, esp. at the end.

Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World

Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World
By Sharon Zukin, 1991

Synopsis: In exploring the interrelationship between market and place, Zukin examines five twentieth-century landscapes to investigate "the spectrum of change between deindustrialization and the shift to a postindustrial or service economy" (23). Landscape is an expression of cultural value (and we thus appear to value capitalism). She argues that the "dominant source of social meaning [has moved] from production to consumption" (57), and this is reflected in the landscape. She discusses steel towns and their paternalistic vibe; Westchester County as a recently suburbanized office park zone after many companies relocated there (shows development of an upwardly-mobile class of consumption post-deindustrialization); L.A. and Miami, though landscapes "explicitly produced for visual consumption" (219), are in fact real cities, though "built on the power of dreamscape, collective fantasy, and facade" (219); Disney World hotels as focused sites of consumption. Bottom line seems to be that consumption rather than production is the dominant force now, and we need to start talking about citizenship instead of just consumerism.

Interesting Specifics:

Culled together from a few different people, Zukin says: "Taking 'ordinary landscape' to be the 'continuous surface all around us,' cultural geographers 'regard all landscapes as symbolic, as expressions of cultural values, social behavior, and individual actions worked upon particular localities over a span of time,'" (18).

"But in the struggle for expansion in the built environment, and control over the uses of space, economic power predominates over both the state and vernacular culture. 'Capital creates and destroys its own landscape'" (19).

Says gentrification is about the search for the "authentic," an attempt "to recapture the value of place" (192) by viewing urban centers/decay in the way people had viewed landscape.

Gentrification creates " 'islands of renewal in seas of decay'" (188).

L.A. and Miami are what we think the future will look like (220).

"The organization of consumption is a powerful means of carrying out creative destruction in the economy" (259).

"Because landscape is the most important product of both power and imagination, it is the major cultural product of our time" (268).