Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States / Edition 1

by Kenneth T. Jackson

Overview

This first full-scale history of the development of the American suburb examines how "the good life" in America came to be equated with the a home of one's own surrounded by a grassy yard and located far from the urban workplace. Integrating social history with economic and architectural analysis, and taking into account such factors as the availability of cheap land, inexpensive building methods, and rapid transportation, Kenneth Jackson chronicles the phenomenal growth of the American suburb from the middle of the 19th century to the present day. He treats communities in every section of the U.S. and compares American residential patterns with those of Japan and Europe. In conclusion, Jackson offers a controversial prediction: that the future of residential deconcentration will be very different from its past in both the U.S. and Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195049831
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/16/1987
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1570L (what's this?)

About the Author

Kenneth T. Jackson, Professor of History at Columbia University, is the author of The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930; Cities in American History; and a number of other books.

Table of Contents

1.. Suburbs as Slums2.. The Transportation Revolution and the Erosion of the Walking City3.. Home Sweet Home: The House and the Yard4.. Romantic Suburbs5.. The Main Line: Elite Suburbs and Commuter Railroads6.. The Time of the Trolley7.. Affordable Homes for the Common Man8.. Suburbs into Neighborhoods: The Rise and Fall of Municipal Annexation9.. The New Age of Automobility10.. Suburban Development Between the Wars11.. Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market12.. The Cost of Good Intentions: The Ghettoization of Public Housing in the United States13.. The Baby Boom and the Age of the Subdivision14.. The Drive-in Culture of Contemporary America15.. The Loss of Community in Metropolitan America16.. Retrospect and Prospect

Editorial Reviews

"A compelling narrative.... Jackson traces the consequences of the predominantly North American process [of suburbanization] through three centuries of technological, economic and social innovation."—Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Publisher