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The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism (Studies in Environment and History)

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The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism. By Adam Rome. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001. 299 pp. ISBN 0-521-80059-5. Call no. GE197. R66 2001.)
Adam Rome's book The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism introduced a new type of scholarly work into the field of American History called Urban Environmental History. This book won the 2002 OAH's Frederick Jackson Turner award and revised the view on consumer based environmentalism. Rome explains how consumers in the post WWII era actually, "intensified rather than diminished the human impact on the environment" by purchasing tract housing in the new suburbs (p. 13). His thesis is clearly stated in the title of the book; Suburban sprawl led to the rise of American environmentalism. Rome explains how the bulldozer destroying a local stand of trees down the block from Suzie-homemaker had more an impact on environmental activism than the debates of far away Western lands. He claims the need for local open spaces, clean water and various other public health concerns in suburban neighborhoods increased environmental activism in America.
The book runs in chronological order from around 1945 until just after the passing of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970 by Richard Nixon's administration. According to reviewer James Jasper historians generally study rural or urban environmental issues, but Rome uncovers, "their interesting intersection," in a place called the suburbs (p. 1105). This new place was not urban; yet, it was not a rural setting either. The millions of WWII veterans sought affordable housing outside of the city slums and launched the suburban inundation. Rome explains how the industrial construction companies catered to their desires for "park-like" settings by naming their housing divisions after the "natural features" they bulldozed over (meadows, woods, and hills) (p.13). The true cost of destroying natural settings was not felt for many years, but Rome illustrates that these neighborhoods spur on environmental activism.
The first chapter in The Bulldozer explains the rise and progression of the suburbs, the first was Levittown, Pennsylvania. Rome explains how the "housing industry" used war time machinery and production line tactics to revolutionize the home building craft forever. No longer were the workers skilled at their trade, Levitt innovated the construction process into 26 different tasks. One crew of men worked on same job from house to house until the construction site became more like a factory setting (p.16). A consumer society emerged when the 6000 homes were completed; manufactures began marketing new appliances as the means to achieve the "world of tomorrow". Rome explains how the new products excited homeowners into purchasing a plethora of products resulted in a 60% increase in consumer spending and very little outcry for the environment (p. 42-43). The media only spoke of the benefits of postwar construction, never the ecological impact.
Chapter two discusses the impact of various new consumer items. Rome claims these consumers were enticed to buy houses that used air-conditioning and electric furnaces because the houses were cheaper. He states people's preferences' of shade trees and big screened in porches were pushed aside for the price of a treeless tract home (p.86). No longer did construction companies have to design houses with scores of windows or breeze ways; Rome asserts this is when construction styles changed forever. Consumers were not concerned with the high environmental impacts of energy use or the need for well insulated houses; with push button controls they could have the modern home in the world of tomorrow: today. (p.71-72)
Chapter three explains how septic tanks allowed builders to place their subdivisions farther away from the city (no public sewer lines were needed) and they were cheep to install (around $300). The author spells out a tale of unknowing consumers who could care less where their sewage goes, until the (sometimes completely unknown) septic tank failed and affected water supplies and destroyed backyards. With human welfare at stake the public debate of waste-disposal began. Septic tanks were deemed a family health hazard not an environmental one. Rome enlightens the reader on the mindset of consumers from 1950-1970 with the septic tank debate; "Though homeowners often complained about septic tank problems, the first call for regulation in many communities came from public health officials and urban planners," not consumers (p. 117). This fact is the key to Rome's argument; consumers at this point did not fear for the environmental costs or the health of plants and animal but the dangers of tract housing were becoming public debate on a larger scale.
Chapters four through seven cover the environmental changes and effects of the growing suburbs in the nation. Rome asserts three types of environment began to be appreciated. After many floods in the 1950s and landslides in mountainous areas in the 1960s, wetlands, hillsides, and floodplains were finally deemed not suitable for home construction (p. 154). Although these areas were eventually protected the argument did not come from consumers. Wetlands, floodplains, and hillsides were deemed important by people in the fields of, "geography, ecology, civil engineering, geology, hydrology, and landscape artists," (p.154). These professionals researched natural processes and reported that the postwar construction methods (aka suburban sprawl) would result in a loss of valuable wildlife and much needed ground cover. Rome discusses their work well and uses it as evidence against the consumer based environmental movement theory.
Rome speaks most highly of Ian McHarg, an architect and regional planner, who became the leading activist pushing for a wider use of ecological harmonious construction in the countryside. His award winning book Design With Nature (1969) according to Rome, for the first time asserted the dangers of suburban sprawl. Rome feels Mcharg influenced many people to rethink, "where not to build," (p 185-188). Rome feels this book was the beginning of the end for large suburbs and by 1970 many national regulations were in place to curb the environmental pollutions created by tract homes. I feel Adam Rome's The Bulldozer in the Countryside connects the mindset of postwar Americans to the larger picture of consumerism. He explains how the new homebuyers and homebuilders helped inspire the environmental movement but they themselves did not American environmentalism. Zachary M. Schrag in his review of Rome's book questions the uses of bulldozer in the title and states, "[Rome] does not fully layout the history of the bulldozer and its roll in suburbanization," (p. 803) My question to Dr. Schrag is, why would Rome discuss the history of the bulldozer in a book about the environmental movement? Clearly Schrag missed the goal of this wonderful book; the bulldozer is an infamous symbol representing the rape of environment, used to invoke a certain emotion in the reader. Rome had no need to memorialize the machine which brought about the destruction in the book.

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This is an excellent book, easily read by lay people. If you have any interest in urban planning (or lack thereof) of the past, present, and future, this book will be invaluable. I used it to write an article about housing in the 40s and it was one of the most insightful and helpful.

Not many Environmenal Health Specialists like myself will probably ever read this book (or even the chapter 'Septic Tank Suburbia'), but they should. Sanitarians, the old term for health inspectors, have approved a crap-load of septic systems serving sprawl development in this nation, and in reading it, the old timers would quickly recognize their place in the undoing of the American environment. Regardless of their 'professional' title.
I was so impressed with the author's history of septic tank sprawl that I emailed him with thanks. I'm actually surprised no one else has reviewed this title on Amazon.
For recent American environmental history, this is one of the best.

This is a really good book, especially in its discussion of the processes of William Levitt in his creation of Levittown - few books actually have as much detail about it as this one - and its explanation of how the rise of cheap air-conditioning led to a backwards movement in design, away from the simple elements of intelligent and natural design that used to be commonplace before the rise of air conditioning, and which are now being returned to in an effort to achieve "sustainability".