Description
Book SynopsisOral histories, census records, and the extensive work of Leonia's many artists and writers come together to trace not only the community's socially diverse history, but to show how residents viewed the growth and transformation of Leonia as well.
Trade ReviewPaul Mattingly presents a thoroughly researched social history of Leonia that challenges the critique of suburbia as lacking in community... The author's use of artistic images, oral histories, and contemporaneous newspaper accounts are instructive. His frequent focus on personalities is an appealing technique that helps to hold the reader's interest and move the story forward. -- Dana Taplin The Public Historian This book makes several important arguments that add complexity to the suburban historiography,... especially in its nuanced exploration of how a suburban imaginary sprang from local soil but planted itself deeply in the national consciousness. -- Becky Nicolaides American Historical Review Presents readers with an alternative way to understand suburbs as communities in which people live and shape their desires, not merely as places under (sub) a city (urban)... The role of cultural memory in a small community's development and of how politics may be conceptualized through that memory, are both interesting and relatively unexplored avenues for understanding community development. It is this approach that makes Suburban Landscapes a valuable contribution. -- Maureen A. Flanagan Urban Studies The inclusion of suburban imagery, ideology, and informal and formal organizations provides a significant contribution to suburban history and serves as a model for unraveling the suburban experience. -- James Borchert Journal of American History 2003
Table of ContentsContents: Suburban Landscapes: Culture and Politics in a New York Metropolitan Community Table Of Contents: Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Dutchness and the English Neighborhood 34 Chapter 2 The Village as as Voluntary Organization 64 Chapter 3 Village Landscapes 108 Chapter 4 The Trolley Produces a Country Town 145 Chapter 5 Country Landscapes, Bohemian City 205 Chapter 6 The Middle-Class Zone 252 Chapter 7 The Political Culture of Suburban Professionals 292 Chapter 8 The Ideology of the Civic Conference 327 Chapter 9 The Modernization of Suburban Memory 384 Chapter 10 Recovering Suburban Memory 434 Epilogue Appendices
