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SUBURBAN ALCHEMY: 1960S NEW TOWNS AND THE TRANSFORMATION O (URBAN LIFE & URBAN LANDSCAPE) - Hardcover
In Suburban Alchemy: 1960s New Towns and the Transformation of the American Dream, Nicholas Dagen Bloom examines the "new town" movement of the 1960s, which sought to transform the physical and social environments of American suburbs by showing that idealism could be profitable.
Bloom offers case studies of three of the movement's more famous examples -- Reston, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; and Irvine, California -- to flesh out his historical account. In each case, innovative planners mixed land uses and housing types; refined architectural, graphic, and landscape design; offered well-defined village and town centers; and pioneered institutional planning. As Bloom demonstrates, these efforts did not uniformly succeed, and attempts to reshape community life through design notably faltered. However, despite frequent disappointments and compromises, the residents have kept the new town ideals alive for over four decades and produced a vital form of suburban community that is far more complicated and interesting than the early vision promoted by the town planners. Lively chapters illustrate efforts in local politics, civic spirit, social and racial integration, feminist innovations, and cultural sponsorship.
Suburban Alchemy should be of interest to scholars of U.S. urban history, planning history, and community development, as well as the general reader interested in the development of alternative communities in the United States.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Nicholas Dagen Bloom is Associate Professor of Social Sciences and chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at New York Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century.
Review:
"Bloom's fine critical analysis forces the reader to see the political consequences of voluntary behavior . . ." -- Journal of American History, December, 2002
"Suburban Alchemy is an extensively researched and persuasively argued contribution to the growing literature on suburban history." -- Reviewed by Roger Biles, Department of History, East Carolina University. Published by H-Urban (September, 2001)
"The analysis is clearly structured . . . with the three towns providing case studies by which various issues can be examined." -- Journal of Design History, 2003
"This book is well written and accessible to students-both undergraduates and graduates-as well as to a more general readership." -- American Historical Review, June, 2003
"Suburban Alchemy is an extensively researched and persuasively argued contribution to the growing literature on suburban history." -- Reviewed by Roger Biles, Department of History, East Carolina University. Published by H-Urban (September, 2001)
"The analysis is clearly structured . . . with the three towns providing case studies by which various issues can be examined." -- Journal of Design History, 2003
"This book is well written and accessible to students-both undergraduates and graduates-as well as to a more general readership." -- American Historical Review, June, 2003
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherOhio State University Press
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0814208746
- ISBN 13 9780814208748
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages333
- Rating
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