Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945-1965

摘要

Houses for a New World makes a significant contribution to the growing corpus of scholarly literature focused on the post-World War II tract house and residential development on what was then the metropolitan periphery. This volume is not only the most detailed study to date but offers an abundance of fresh material and, most importantly, substantial new insights on the nature of a phenomenon that became an emblem of the American landscape and American life, one that still profoundly affects our routines and our outlooks. Barbara Miller Lane takes her subject in a largely positive light that is framed by voluminous research over a period of many years. Her perspective accords with that of a number of other historians who have investigated this realm in recent years. At the same time, she is mindful that the postwar suburb still has its critics who variously deride it as physically banal, culturally deprived, environmentally harmful, and racially divisive. Lane not only acknowledges such invectives but also explores why these places were so de-monized by sociologists, planners, architects, and others when they were new, and she provides a sound basis for refuting at least some of the arguments that persist.