Title & Author:

Making suburbia : new histories of everyday America / John Archer, Paul J.P. Sandul, and Katherine Solomonson, editors ; afterword by Margaret Crawford.

Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2015]

Description:

xxv, 392 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references.
Introduction: Making, performing, living suburbia / John Archer, Paul J. P. Sandul, and Katherine Solomonson -- Part I. Mobilizing. The social fallout of racial politics : civic engagement in suburban Pasadena, 1950-2000 / Becky M. Nicolaides ; Race, planning, and activism on Philadelphia's Main Line / Trecia Pottinger ; Defending "women who stand by the sink" : suburban homemakers and anti-ERA activism in New York State / Stacie Taranto ; Gay organizing in the "desert of suburbia" of metropolitan Detroit / Tim Retzloff ; Ecological preservation in suburban Atlanta / Christopher Sellers -- Part II. Representing. Metaburbia : the evolving suburb in contemporary fiction / Martin Dines ; Suburban memory works : historical representation and meaning in Orangevale, California / Paul J.P. Sandul ; Does this place really matter? : the preservation debate in Denver's postwar suburbs / Heather Bailey ; Yards and everyday life in Minneapolis / Ursula Lang ; Suburban rhetorics : planning and design for American shopping, 1930-1960 / David Smiley ; This old house of the future : remixing progress and nostalgia in suburban domestic design / Holley Wlodarczyk -- Part III. Gathering. Everyday racialization : contesting space and identity in suburban St. Louis / Jodi Rios ; The vibrant life of Asian malls in Silicon Valley / Willow Lung-Aman ; Spaces for youth in suburban Protestant churches / Gretchen Buggeln ; Sanctifying the SUV : megachurches, the Prosperity Gospel, and the suburban Christian / Charity R. Carney -- Part IV. Building. The fabric of spying : double agents and the suburban Cold War / Andrew Friedman ; Selling suburbia : Marshall Erdman's marketing strategies for prefabricated buildings in the postwar United States / Anna Vemer Andrzejewski ; A tiny orchestra in the living room : high-fidelity sounds, stereo systems, and the postwar house / Dianne Harris ; Suburban noise : getting inside garage rock / Steve Waksman ; The complex : social difference and the suburban apartment in postwar America / Matthew Gordon Lasner ; The outdoor kitchen and twenty-first century domesticity / Beverly K. Grindstaff -- Afterword / Margaret Crawford.

Summary:

"What are the suburbs? The popular vision of monotonous streets curving into culs-de-sac and emerald lawns unfurling from nearly identical houses would have us believe that suburbia is a boring, homogeneous, and alienating place. But this stereotypical portrayal of the suburbs tells us very little about the lives of the people who actually live there. Making Suburbia offers a diverse collection of essays that examine how the history and landscape of the American suburb are constructed through the everyday actions and experiences of its inhabitants. From home decor and garage rock to modernist shopping malls and holiday parades, contributors explore how suburbanites actively created the spaces of suburbia. The volume is divided into four parts, each of which addresses a distinct aspect of the ways in which suburbia is lived in and made. More than twenty essays range from Becky Nicolaides's chronicle of cross-racial alliances in Pasadena, to Jodi Rios's investigation of St. Louis residents' debates over public space and behavior, to Andrew Friedman's story of Cold War double agents who used the suburban milieu as a cover for their espionage. Presenting a wide variety of voices, Making Suburbia reveals that suburbs are a constantly evolving landscape for the articulation of American society and are ultimately defined not by planners but by their inhabitants." -- Publisher's description.

ISBN:

9780816692965 (hc ; alk. paper)
0816692963 (hc ; alk. paper)
9780816692996 (alk. paper)
0816692998 (alk. paper)
9781452944616 (ebook)

Subject:

Suburban life United States.
Suburbs United States History.
Vie de la banlieue États-Unis.
Suburban life
Suburbs
Förorter historia.
Förortsliv.
United States.
Förenta staterna.

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Archer, John, 1947-
Sandul, Paul J. P.
Solomonson, Katherine, 1956-

Holdings:

Location: Library main 289904
Call No.: BIB 232594
Status: Available