Making Suburbia

John Archer is professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Architecture and Suburbia and The Literature of British Domestic Architecture, 1715–1842.Paul J. P. Sandul is assistant professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is the author of California Dreaming: Boosterism, Memory, and Rural Suburbs in the Golden State. Katherine Solomonson is associate professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition: Skyscraper Design and Cultural Change in the 1920s. Margaret Crawford is professor of architecture at University of California, Berkeley.

"Contributors attempt to remove stereotypes-- plenty are called out-- and to legitimate suburbs as a field of study. The topics covered here might fall into several fields ranging from sociology to urban planning, remain peripheral to them, or provoke further investigation."-CHOICE"The book succeeds in demolishing the single sterile stereotype of suburbia."-Planning Magazine"Demonstrating suburbia’s mobility as both metaphor and materiality, the collection’s diverse accounts of communities, families, and their dwellings evidence how the borders between the cul-de-sac and beyond remain malleable. Take together, the collection answers “yes” to the question, “Do these places matter?” and reaffirms the call for scholars to further study the complexity of suburbia."-Historical Geography"I greatly enjoyed reading Making Suburbia and highly recommend it for academic study as well as personal interest."-Journal of Planning Education and Research

• ContentsIntroduction: Making, Performing, Living SuburbiaJohn Archer, Paul J. P. Sandul, and Katherine SolomonsonPart I. Mobilizing1. The Social Fallout of Racial Politics: Civic Engagement in Suburban Pasadena, 1950–2000Becky Nicolaides2. Race, Planning, and Activism on Philadelphia’s Main LineTrecia Pottinger3. Defending “Women Who Stand by the Sink”: Suburban Homemakers and Anti-ERA Activism in New York StateStacie Taranto4. Gay Organizing in the “Desert of Suburbia” of Metropolitan DetroitTim Retzloff5. Ecological Preservation in Suburban AtlantaChristopher SellersPart II. Representing6. Metaburbia: The Evolving Suburb in Contemporary FictionMartin Dines7. Suburban Memory Works: Historical Representation and Meaning in Orangevale, CaliforniaPaul J. P. Sandul8. Does This Place Really Matter? The Preservation Debate in Denver’s Postwar SuburbsHeather Bailey9. Yards and Everyday Life in MinneapolisUrsula Lang10. Suburban Rhetorics: Planning and Design for American Shopping, 1930–1960David Smiley11. This Old House of the Future: Remixing Progress and Nostalgia in Suburban Domestic DesignHolley WlodarczykPart III. Gathering12. Everyday Racialization: Contesting Space and Identity in Suburban St. LouisJodi Rios13. The Vibrant Life of Asian Malls in Silicon ValleyWillow Lung-Amam14. Spaces for Youth in Suburban Protestant ChurchesGretchen Buggeln15. Sanctifying the SUV: Megachurches, the Prosperity Gospel, and the Suburban ChristianCharity R. CarneyPart IV. Building16. The Fabric of Spying: Double Agents and the Suburban Cold WarAndrew Friedman17. Selling Suburbia: Marshall Erdman’s Marketing Strategies for Prefabricated Buildings in the Postwar United StatesAnna Vemer Andrzejewski18. A Tiny Orchestra in the Living Room: Hi-Fidelity Sound, Stereo Systems, and the Postwar HouseDianne Harris19. Suburban Noise: Getting Inside Garage RockSteve Waksman20. The Complex: Social Difference and the Suburban Apartment in Postwar AmericaMatthew Gordon Lasner21. The Outdoor Kitchen and Twenty-first Century DomesticityBeverly K. GrindstaffAfterwordMargaret CrawfordContributorsIndex