Fleeing the City

MICHAEL J. THOMPSON is Assistant Professor of Political Science and is also on the faculty of Urban Studies at William Paterson University, USA.

" Fleeing the City is a worthwhile project that fills the gap in the existing literature on urbanism. As Thompson points out, there is a lacuna in the extensive scholarship on urbanism. Although there have been numerous critical histories of the suburbs, studies of the city tend to approach the topic from a broadly sympathetic perspective and focus on the legal, architectural, economic, or social factors that have undermined its potential. A new systematic, book-length study of antiurbanism is long overdue and makes a real contribution to our understanding of cities." - Margaret Kohn, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto

• PART I: THEORIZING ANTIURBANISM What is Antiurbanism? A Theoretical Perspective; M.J.Thompson Antiurbanism in the United States, England, and China; R.A.Beauregard The Origins of Antiurbanism; J.A.Clapp PART II: ANTIURBANISM IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE Pastoral Ideals and City Troubles; L.Marx Boys in the City: Homoerotic Desire and the Urban Refuge in Early-Twentieth-Century Germany; E.Mancini Antiurbanism, New York, and the Early-Twentieth-Century American National Imagination; A.M.Blake PART III: ANTIURBANISM IN SOCIETY AND POLITICS Imagining the Urban Poor; R.Salerno Americans, Urbanism, and Sprawl: An Exploration of Living Preferences; E.Talen Fundamentalism and Antiurbanism: The Frontier Myth, the Christian Nation, and the Heartland; E.Mendieta Against Safety, Against Security: Reinvigorating Urban Life; D.Mitchell