The Promise of Paradise: Recreational and Retirement Communities in the United States since 1950 (Creating the North American Landscape) [Hardcover]

Professor Hubert B. Stroud (Author)

Book Description

Series: Creating the North American Landscape | Publication Date: January 1, 1995

In the first geographic and environmental analysis of the recreational and retirement community industry, Hubert B. Stroud shows how and why certain communities had positive impacts on the surrounding region while others did not. Focusing on well-known developments in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee, he finds that most developments were poorly planned, resulting in environmental damage, overtaxing of public services, and social and economic problems. Yet Stroud acknowledges that future development is inevitable, as recreational and retirement communities continue to lure urban America with the promise of paradise.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""Stroud's survey is one of the most comprehensive undertaken to date, and he skillfully integrates the forces that controlled the rapid expansion of these settlement forms..Succeeds admirably in describing the landscapes produced by the recreational land development industry, interpreting their various local impacts, and discussing regulatory controls that could ameliorate and eventually resole the problems that have arisen. Most of all, this is a classic geographical account of these settlements, infused with perceptive field-based insights, strongly supported by maps and photographs, and always focused on the interactions between these communities and their environmental contexts." -- Progress in Human Geography

About the Author

Hubert B. Stroud is professor of geography at Arkansas State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801849268
• ISBN-13: 978-0801849268
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,631,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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