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Review
"Popular with my students. As many readers know, Jackson's book is well-written and engrossing which makes it a useful choice for an introductory course (required) with a less than enthusiastic audience."--Sullivan L. Huntoon, Indiana University
"A delightful book that sheds light on American history and society from unexpected vantage points. Very stimulating."--Clifford H. Scott, Indiana University
"Beautifully written and organized; a mine of insights on a broad range of urban and suburban problems."--Stanley B. Winters, New Jersy Institute of Technology
"Excellent for advanced undergraduates not only in urban history, but in American social history, too."--Louis Kyriakoudes, University of North Carolina-Wilmington
"The best study in American urban development to appear in the last few years. This work will long remain one of the most important in its field."--Pacific Historical Review
"The most important book on the history of American suburbs to appear since the publication of Sam Bass Warner's Streetcar Suburbs in 1962."--American Historical Review
"An excellent work. Clear, well-presented and very readable."--Joseph M. Hawes, Memphis State University
"A model history."--American Studies International
"A superb achievement that will set the standard for American social and urban history for a long time to come."--Roger W. Lotchin, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Product Description
Written in cuneiform on a clay tablet, this letter to the King of Persia in 539 B.C. represents the first extant expression of the suburban ideal. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Explanations before condemnations,
By A Customer
This review is from: Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Paperback)
This book is obviously a classic of urban-studies literature and a lot of people have said a lot of good things about it.One thing to keep in mind when considering this book, however, is that (contrary to what others have said) it is *not* a history of suburbanization through the end of the 20th century. It is much more an explanation of the roots of 20th century suburbanization -- as they took form in the 19th century. The author does an excellent job of explaning the cultural and technological conditions that existed in the 19th century which made the move the the perifery seem attractive and, above all, logical. Today, in the 21st century, we have a difficult time placing oursleves in the shoes of the aspiring 19th century home-owner. We get stuck on the question "How could they just leave their cities to rot?" This book takes us back to show us the ideals, hopes and dreams of the 19th cenury burghers -- which the author also expertly contrasts to 19th-century realities. In this way, Jackson shows us how the move to a tract-house on a winding lane named after a tree could only seem like the conquest of the new-world utopia to the train-hopping clerks who first embraced suburbia. The brightest examples of these cultural trends are the author's description of the rising symbolic importance of the garden, as well as his emphasis on the media-images associated with the new "old" country gentry. Overall, he describes an America (ironically) in search of its "country" roots, while in the midst of the greatest urban/industrial boom the world has ever known. By placing the reader firmly in a world where the word "cab" connoted a horse and carriage and where "pollution" meant horse-dung, Jackson makes us aware that the suburbs arose out of a legitimate desire to improve living standards in a very real way. In sharp contrast, to so many books on the same topic _The Crabgrass Frontier_ is not a vitrolic condemnation of selfishness or race-paranoia or consumer-madness. It is a cultural commentary on certain 19th mores which -- when taken to their logical extreme (as they were in the 20th century) -- have a profound effect on the geography of the modern American city.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Conformity and Uniformity,
By
This review is from: Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Paperback)
I can relate to quote from John Keats at the beginning of this book, "Even while you read this whole square miles of identical boxes are spreading like gangrene...development conceived in error, nurtured by greed, corroding everything they touch." I live in suburbia. And it is tough for me to state that fact. And right now (in February, 2011) another development of 1,200 of homes is being built nearby. A new Lowes just went in with a Subway quick service restaurant within it. A widened road to serve this community features a multi-million dollar bridge over a creek three meters wide (someone complained loud enough about the impact on nature and a compromise was struck - must be money in it still given the cost of the bridge).Crabgrass Frontier accurately states that living patterns condition our behavior. As such, we are plugging in thousands of people to communities that demand that they have to drive everywhere, shop at generic stores and dine at predictable restaurants, never get to know their neighbors, cram ever more stuff into their garages to fill two voids - all so they can look forward to getting away from their homes on their next vacation. Or as Bombeck states suburbia is a place where "everyone has the same living standards, the same weeds, the same number of garbage cans, the same house plans, and the same level in the septic tanks." The book is now dated but it's cautions and concerns have largely been realized. The promise of the good life following the Second World War gave birth to a manner of living that is becoming increasingly unsustainable while robbing people of any real connection to community.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Educational and thought-provoking,
By Raistlyn (New Haven) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Paperback)
Crabgrass Frontiers explores the development of American cities and suburbs in the late 19th up to the late 20th century. Jackson describes how innovations in transportation, including horse trolleys, steam-powered rail, and others including the private automobile, have helped shape the urban landscape. He also describes how as the cities expanded, minorities and the impoverished became "trapped" in the inner city, cut off by superhighways that speed suburbanites from bedroom communities in the suburbs to their offices in the central business district in the city core.
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