Architecture and Suburbia From English Villa to American Dream House, 1690–2000 John Archer Table of Contents		$27.50 Paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4304-2 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4304-0 $40.00 Cloth/jacket ISBN: 978-0-8166-4303-5 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4303-2
Winner of the Society of Architectural Historians’ Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award. Traces the evolution of the modern American dream house from seventeenth-century England to the present. The American suburban dream house—a single-family, detached dwelling, frequently clustered in tight rows and cul-de-sacs—has been attacked for some time as homogeneous and barren, yet the suburbs are home to half of the American population. Architectural historian John Archer suggests the endurance of the ideal house is deeply rooted in the notions of privacy, property, and selfhood that were introduced in late seventeenth-century England and became the foundation of the American nation and identity. Spanning four centuries, Architecture and Suburbia explores phenomena ranging from household furnishings and routines to the proliferation of the dream house in parallel with Cold War politics. Beginning with John Locke, whose Enlightenment philosophy imagined individuals capable of self-fulfillment, Archer examines the eighteenth-century British bourgeois villa and the earliest London suburbs. He recounts how early American homeowners used houses to establish social status and how twentieth-century Americans continued to flock to single-family houses in the suburbs, encouraged by patriotism, fueled by consumerism, and resisting disdain by disaffected youths, designers, and intellectuals. Finally, he recognizes “hybridized” or increasingly diverse American suburbs as the dynamic basis for a strengthened social fabric. From Enlightenment philosophy to rap lyrics, from the rise of a mercantile economy to discussions over neighborhoods, sprawl, and gated communities, Archer addresses the past, present, and future of the American dream house. “Archer is to be commended for deiberately and successfully spanning the realms of philosophy and populism. Highly recommended.” —Choice “Exploring four centuries, this book explores phenomena ranging from household furnishing and routines, to the proliferation of the dream house in parallel with Cold War politics.” —Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and the Environment “Architecture and Suburbia is a thorough and compelling work that extends our current understanding of modern suburbia.” —Social and Cultural Geography “Architecture and Suburbia is quietly fascinating, engagingly thorough, and completely riveting.” —Architectural Record “Archer shows that the creation and evolution of the suburban house and the suburban landscape raise the most profound issues of ‘self, identity, gender, and relation to family and society.’ . . . Archer is both a compelling theorist and an adventurous researcher.” —Robert Fishman, University of Michigan John Archer is professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. His book The Literature of British Domestic Architecture, 1715-1842, is the standard reference on the subject, and he also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Urban America and the Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Architecture. 496 pages | 118 b&w photos | 7 x 10 | 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: Self, House, and Suburb Introduction: Built Spaces and Identity PART I. Eighteenth-Century England: The Genesis of the Bourgeois Dwelling 1. Locating the Self in Space 2. Villa Suburbana, Terra Suburbana 3. The Apparatus of Selfhood PART II. Nineteenth-Century America: Republican Homes in Arcadian Suburbs 4. Republican Pastoral: Toward a Bourgeois Arcadia 5. Suburbanizing the Self PART III. Twentieth-Century America: The Dream House Ideal and the Suburban Landscape 6. Nationalizing the Dream 7. Analyzing the Dream Conclusion: Reframing Suburbia Coda: Looking Ahead Notes Permissions Index