Radical Suburbs: Experimental Living on the Fringes of the American City

Synopsis

&“A revelation . . . will open your eyes to the wide diversity and rich history of our ongoing suburban experiment.&” —Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class America&’s suburbs are not the homogenous places we sometimes take them for. Today&’s suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The cliche of white picket fences is well past its expiration date. The history of suburbia is equally surprising: American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially-conscious design, and integrated housing. We have forgotten that we built suburbs like these, such as the co-housing commune of Old Economy, Pennsylvania; a tiny-house anarchist community in Piscataway, New Jersey; a government-planned garden city in Greenbelt, Maryland; a racially integrated subdivision (before the Fair Housing Act) in Trevose, Pennsylvania; experimental Modernist enclaves in Lexington, Massachusetts; and the mixed-use, architecturally daring Reston, Virginia. Inside Radical Suburbs you will find blueprints for affordable, walkable, and integrated communities, filled with a range of environmentally sound residential options. Radical Suburbs is a history that will help us remake the future and rethink our assumptions of suburbia. &“The communities Kolson Hurley chronicles are welcome reminders that any place, even a suburb, can be radical if you approach it the right way.&” —NPR &“Radical Suburbs overturns stereotypes about the suburbs to show that, from the beginning, those &‘little boxes&’ harbored revolutionary ideas about racial and economic inclusion, communal space, and shared domestic labor. Amanda Kolson Hurley&’s illuminating case studies show not just where we&’ve been but where we need to go.&” ―Alexandra Lange, author of The Design of Childhood

Copyright:

2019

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781948742375

Related ISBNs:

9781948742368

Publisher:

Arcadia Publishing

Date of Addition:

11/09/24

Copyrighted By:

Amanda Kolson Hurley

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Social Studies, Sociology

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.