Being American on the Edge: Penurbia and the Metropolitan Mind, 1945-2010 [Hardcover]

This manuscript focuses on the development of hybrid city-country (penurban) landscapes around large urban areas which mesh stylized countryside with functional links to the cities. These landscapes are central to American mindsets as they combine the dreams, expectations, and experiences of the nation in expressive cultural landscapes. An interpretive-analytical methodology is used in this single-authored, multidisciplinary work which draws on insights from history, American Studies, social sciences, urban studies, and environmental studies, and cultural studies in order to portray lifestyle and settlement phenomena overlooked by single disciplinary fields. Telling the story of how penurban landscapes emerged, the work blends original research with a re-reading of existing work to understand developing lifestyle and settlement patterns. The book aims at readers in history, urban studies, environmental studies, consumerism and American Studies.Introducing Penurbia  Thinking about City Edges  Penurbanites and Exurbanites - Peoples of the Fringe  Charting Penurban Growth  Politics, Planning, and Administration  Penurban Civil Society  Images from Popular Culture  Magazines and Penurbia  Professional Views of Penurban Change

'The geographically-based case studies incorporated into Being American on the Edge represent the very essence of Goddard's work. His attention to popular culture - film, magazines, and newspapers - is also handled effectively as well as engagingly. Indeed, it lends essential context to his work. A significant book. - Michael H. Ebner, professor emeritus of American History, Lake Forest College, and author of Creating Chicago's North Shore, A Suburban History

Exurbs, edge cities, and now penurbia: we are bombarded with new language to describe new types of settlements. But seldom has a term met a more demanding wordsmith than Joseph Goddard. Drawing ló¾