Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia [Paperback]

Robert Fishman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465007473 | ISBN-13: 978-0465007479 | Publication Date: March 31, 1989

A noted urban historian traces the story of the suburb from its origins in nineteenth-century London to its twentieth-century demise in decentralized cities like Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Unlike the pre-modern city, where workplaces and residences were integrated, suburbia, as this "searching study" reveals, is a middle-class invention. In tracing suburban history, Fishman "makes us keenly aware that modern, class-segregated suburbs represent a total transformation of urban values," reported PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Noted scholar of suburbia Fishman presents an overview of the history of the movement of the Anglo-American middle class to detached homes in natural settings on the fringes of cities. This move to the suburbs, beginning mainly in the 1800s, he feels took place first in England, then the United States. Among the causes for this great change were the growth of city ugliness and the working class due to industrialization and advances in transportation and communication. Covering some of the same ground as Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier ( LJ 9/1/85) but reaching markedly different conclusions, Fishman's book belongs in academic and large public libraries. Pat Ensor, Indiana State Univ. Lib., Terre Haute
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (March 31, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465007473
• ISBN-13: 978-0465007479
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prescient, February 1, 2011

By 

Michael Brown (Cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia (Paperback)

The text has good analysis and synthesis and is wholly accessible to anyone. It is a fascinating book which ends discussing the then phenomenon of 'edge cities' or 'boom burgs'. It is truly a shame that the author has not published any further book-length work or continued on where he left off in the late 1980's. He has published quite a lot, but it has been in the context of journals and digests. This is a great companion book to "The Crabgrass Frontier", especially since it comes to somewhat different conclusions, as demonstrated in the title itself.

I regret that I am not able to read other books by this author and heartily recommend this to everyone.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pass the Gin, February 11, 2011

By 

Jeffrey Swystun (Ottawa & New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia (Paperback)

This truly enjoyable examination loses two stars for two reasons: it is a tad dated (no fault of its own) and it misses the point. Suburbia did not fall, it morphed or evolved in an unfortunate ways. Yet, it holds true to some original observations like Mumford's critique that suburbia is "a collective effort to live a private life". One of the greatest surprises in my life is to actually find myself living in "modern" suburbia and I am in violent agreement with Mumford's take on this isolating environment. I live within 500 meters of ten neighbors and know more about the last guy I sat next to on a plane than the neighbors I have resided by for over five years.

Suburban design was meant to create a harmony between nature and city. Instead it has developed into bastardized versions of tiny cities (not quaint towns). People have escaped the city core where they work and created a bizarre melange of living conditions that was never desired but is plainly a new form of city. This new environment was to renew the focus on family but actually segregated that unit in more ways than ever could have been imagined.

The North American suburb is a cookie cutter of Monopoly game houses, aesthetically revolting strip malls, failed attempts at rekindling post-war community involvement, and broad voids of culture. These suburbs are quite different from the ones John Cheever captured in his fiction following the Second World War. They are a horribly false construct driven by conformity, false economic advantage, and expectations of material possessions that depress rather than reward their owners. Cheever may have been ahead of his time when he wrote that the only thing shared in suburbia was the consumption of alcohol.

5 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The outstanding book on the urban history, April 4, 2000

By 

Chae Eun-hae (Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia (Paperback)

I think Robert is the real stylist to be able to make common things expose into the world. When I read this book, I was encouraged to explain hidden meanings of urban life. Excellent analasis on urban history..