Customer Reviews

St. Louis: Evolution Of American Urban Landscape (Critical Perspectives On The P)

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Eric Sandweiss has done a superb job of analyzing the physical evolution of St. Louis as seen from the perspective of one of its most stable neighborhood areas, South St. Louis. His analytical framework reflects the perspective of the great Sir Winston Churchill, who said "We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us." The kind of analysis the author undertakes is similar to a book he cites in his notes, Puritan Village. But while this latter work focused on the relatively simple and stable environment of Sudbury, MA, over a relatively short period of time, Sandweiss covers virtually the entire history of St. Louis. For most of his book, he focuses on a detailed analysis of several representative blocks of South St. Louis, including demographics, house styles, and block-by-block development patterns, to demonstrate how neighborhood character and composition change over time. This is truly original work. But his last two chapters, comprising a little over 50 pages, present a powerful summation of the growth and decline of the city in the 20th century. Many of his observations reflect the evolution of most American cities over time, making a transition from a kinship-based to an association-based pattern of development, evolving from a ward-healer pattern of government to one emphasizing professional management principles, etc. His indictment of city planning as practiced in St. Louis is just devastating, particularly the work of Harland Bartholomew. My only quibble is that he does not offer a plausible alternative to the pattern of centralization and professionalization of city government that occurred. Would St. Louis have avoided its precipitous decline if it had retained a dispersed, neighborhood-based type of government? Or, could its leaders, beginning with the Progressive Era, have guided the city in a more positive direction? Nevertheless, Eric Sandweiss has contributed a powerful analysis of how St. Louis grew, developed, and declined over time.

While I'm sure this author is very knowledgeable in the area of Urban renewal, history, etc- he wrote a book that shares his knowledge with no one. His style of writing is that which uses unnecessarily big words in unnecessarily complicated ways, forcing the reader to reread each paragraph 4 times and still not understand what the heck the point is. This is the type of book which might be on a suggested book list for a college course, but everyone hates it because even if you suffer through it and manage to 'read' the whole thing, you will walk away with a very small understanding of the material inside. If the author would just speak his mind and explain his thoughts, it would be a great book. However, he jumbles up his sentences and paragraphs so horridly, trying to make himself appear intelligent, that everyone finds this book frustrating and a waste of time.