Suburbs, Carl Abbott
Suburbs, Carl Abbott
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Suburbs
A Very Short Introduction

Author: Carl Abbott

Narrator: Mike Lenz

Unabridged: 4 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/23/2023


Synopsis

We live in the suburban era. Well over half of all Americans and two-thirds of Canadians live in suburbs. Tracts of suburban bungalows ring Sydney and Melbourne. Suburban apartments rise on the outskirts of Paris, Prague, Singapore, and Beijing. Nearly everyone has a strong opinion about suburbs. Folks who love dense cities scorn "suburbia," while people who like big yards dislike bustling sidewalks and subways. Social scientists argue whether suburbs are losing their luster or if a supposed back-to-the-city trend is a mirage—a debate that has been exacerbated by uncertainty over the effects of COVID-19. This Very Short Introduction tackles two central questions: What is the history behind a suburbanizing world? What does the suburban trend mean for society, politics, and culture? Two chapters describe the ways that the new technologies of streetcars, trains, automobiles, and internet have allowed the compact cities of Britain and the United States to grow into sprawling metropolitan regions. The following chapters explore the vertical suburbs of Europe and East Asia, improvised or do-it-yourself suburbs in both North America and Latin America, and suburbs as places of employment. The book concludes by exploring criticism and praise of suburbs in popular sociology, fiction, film, and the Americanization of twenty-first-century suburbs around the globe.

Author Bio

Carl Abbott retired after teaching urban studies and planning at Portland State University for over five decades. He has written about the history of cities from Washington to Chicago to Los Angeles to Portland. He is a past president of the Urban History Association and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association and has served as coeditor of the Journal of the American Planning Association and the Pacific Historical Review. He also writes about the intersections of history, urbanism, and speculative fiction. Recent short essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, Washington Post, and Bloomberg CityLab.

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