Post-Suburbia: Government and Politics in the Edge Cities

by Jon C. Teaford

Overview

The years shortly after the end of World War II saw the beginnings of a new kind of community that blended the characteristics of suburbia with those of the central city. Over the decades these "edge cities"have become permanent features of the regional landscape.

Originally published in 1996. The years shortly after the end of World War II saw the beginnings of a new kind of community that blended the characteristics of suburbia with those of the central city. Over the decades these "edge cities" have become permanent features of the regional landscape. In Post-Suburbia, historian Jon Teaford charts the emergence of these areas and explains why and how they developed.

Teaford begins by describing the adaptation of traditional units of government to the ideals and demands of the changing world along the metropolitan fringe. He shows how these post-suburban municipalities had to fashion a government that perpetuated the ideals of small-scale village life and yet, at the same time, provided for a large tax base to pay for needed municipal services. To tell this story, Teaford follows six counties that were among the pioneers of the post-suburban world: Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York; Oakland County, Michigan; DuPage County, Illinois; Saint Louis County, Missouri; and Orange County, California.

Although county governments took on new coordinating functions, Teaford concludes, the many municipalities along the metropolitan fringe continued to retain their independence and authority. Underlying this balance of power was the persistent adherence to the long-standing suburban tradition of grassroots rule. Despite changes in the economy and appearance of the metropolitan fringe, this ideology retained its appeal among post-suburban voters, who rebelled at the prospect of thorough centralization of authority. Thus the fringe may have appeared post-suburban, but traditional suburban attitudes continued to influence the course of governmental development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421434834
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/03/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	258
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jon C. Teaford is a professor of history at Purdue University. He is the author of six previous books on the history of urban America, including The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 and The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality, both available from Johns Hopkins.

Jon C. Teaford is professor emeritus of history at Purdue University. He is the author of Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940–1985, The Metropolitan Revolution: The Rise of Post-Urban America, and The American Suburb: The Basics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. New Government for a New Metropolis
Chapter 2. The Age of the Suburban Haven
Chapter 3. The Emerging Post-Suburban Pattern, 1945-1960
Chapter 4. Maintaining the Balance of Power
Chapter 5. Post-Suburban Imperialists
Chapter 6. Recognition and Rebellion
Chapter 7. The Pragmatic Compromise
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index

Editorial Reviews

Charts the emergence of communities blending characteristics of suburbia and central cities since post-WWII. Describes the adaptation of traditional units of government to the ideals and demands of these edge cities, following six counties in New York, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and California, that were pioneers of the post-suburban world, and stresses that traditional suburban attitudes held sway in the course of governmental development. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

A pioneering study in the important history of our recent urban past and effectively uses history to produce a better understanding of our post-suburban world.
—Planning Perspectives

From the Publisher

A pioneering study in the important history of our recent urban past and effectively uses history to produce a better understanding of our post-suburban world.

Planning Perspectives