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

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.

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

The Bulldozer in the Countryside is the first scholarly history of efforts to reduce the environmental costs of suburban development in the United States. The book offers a new account of two of the most important historical events in the period since World War II--the mass migration to the suburbs and the rise of the environmental movement. This work offers a valuable historical perspective for scholars, professionals, and citizens interested in the issue of suburban sprawl.

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

Modern American environmentalism owes much to such predecessors as Henry Thoreau, John Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt. But it owes much more, suggests historian Adam Rome, to the sprawling suburbs of the postwar era, when great sections of the country fell under the bulldozer to make way for the vaunted American Dream.

Homebuilders of the immediate postwar era did not, as a rule, take into account the environmental costs of their work--nor did they have to. "To take advantage of the cheap, unsewered land at the fringes of cities," writes Rome,

they could install septic tanks on tiny lots, in unsuitable soils, or near streams and wells. To reduce land-acquisition costs, builders also could level hills, fill wetlands, and build in floodplains. To maximize the number of lots in a tract, they could design subdivisions with no open space.

Such actions improved a builder's chances of making a profit, to be sure, but in the coming years they yielded significant opposition--and not just from the occasional birdwatcher or hiker. Activist citizen groups and government agencies began demanding responsible building and zoning practices. In the end, non-urban America's onetime habit of letting landowners do what they would on their land gave way to "an explosion of codes, regulations, and guidelines," the product of a growing awareness of environmental problems and the need to solve them--and an extraordinarily far-reaching shift in public policy.

Rome's well-written book makes a welcome addition to the history of environmental thought, one to shelve alongside the best of Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs. --Gregory McNamee

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Customer Reviews

Excellent for anyone interested in Urban Planning - Jo Collins - St. Louis, MO USA
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.



New Information and Unique Perspective - Chris Tuaco - Bay Area, CA
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".







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