The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community

by Miles Orvell

For more than a century, the term "Main Street" has conjured up nostalgic images of American small-town life. Representations exist all around us, from fiction and film to the architecture of shopping malls and Disneyland. All the while, the nation has become increasingly diverse, exposing tensions within this ideal. In Main Street, Miles Orvell wrestles with the mythic allure of the small town in all its forms, illustrating how Americans continue to reinscribe these images on real places in order to forge consensus about inclusion and civic identity, especially in times of crisis. Orvell underscores the fact that Main Street was never what it seemed; it has always been much more complex than it appears, as he shows in his discussions of figures like Sinclair Lewis, Willa Cather, Frank Capra, Thornton Wilder, Margaret Bourke-White, and Walker Evans. He argues that translating the overly tidy cultural metaphor into real spaces--as has been done in recent decades, especially

Genres: Nonfiction

286 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Miles Orvell is Professor of English & American Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. His publications have ranged from literary criticism to broader studies of American culture. His early book on Flannery O'Connor was followed by The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940 (1989), a study of technology and culture that was co-winner of the ASA's John Hope Franklin Prize (reissued in a Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition). The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community (2012) was a Finalist for the Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Best Book Published on Community and Social Cohesion, 2013. Orvell's Empire of Ruins: American Culture, Photography, and the Spectacle of Destruction was published by Oxford University Press in early 2021.

In addition, he is the author of After the Machine: Visual Arts and the Erasing of Cultural Boundaries (1995) and of American Photography (2003) in the Oxford History of Art Series. (Expanded and revised in 2016 as Photography in America.) Orvell has edited the volume, John Vachon's America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II (2003) and he has co-edited Public Place and the Ideology of Space in America (2009) and Rethinking the American City: An International Dialogue (2013). He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of American Studies (American Studies Association--print and online), from 1998 to 2011. He is the recipient of several NEH awards and of the Bode-Pearson Prize in American Studies for lifetime achievement. In 2010, he received one of the University’s “Great Teacher” awards.

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all - the title is obviously a reference to Jane Jacobs’ classic. And the author did reference Jacobs in the book, that Jacobs loathes high-rise as the solution to lack of housing in the cities and believes the city needs to have a more “feminine” look - more low rise, more community oriented look.

In sum, the author chronicles the development of Main Street, U.S.A. (obviously a reference taken from… Disney World) through several lenses: historical, cultural, belonging, economical etc. But one recurring theme throughout: there has never been a stable “Main Street, U.S.A.”. In fact, change is the only constant, the idea of Main Street, U.S.A. evolves over time. Here are 2 points that I find fascinating from reading the book.

One - the author argues that Main Street, U.S.A. has been struggling as long as it has been thriving. Consumer habit changes constantly, and Main Street, U.S.A. changes to adapt as well. In fact, the very form of Main Street, U.S.A. changes too. Even in the late 1800s, Main Street, U.S.A. was struggling to cope with the rise of chain stores. But stores evolves constantly - after the chain stores, it was the Sears-Roebuck/Montgomery Ward catalogs, then the rise of regional malls, then the rise of big-box stores (such as Walmart)... as of writing, the rise of e-commerce (with Amazon leading the pack) can’t be underestimated. Which brings me to the second point:

Two - the author argues that the idealistic imagery of Main Street, U.S.A. - steaming from Disneyworld’s charming rows of retail, areas where people could congregate, grab an ice cream (or a ginormous turkey leg) - is simply an ideal image of the USA. Ironically, it’s more or less a cosplay of the USA by itself, no different than American Chinatown’s attempt to draw up an imaginary China, scattered around the country. In order to compete for people’s attention, American developers conjure up figments of imagination of a charming towns in the name of “tradition” - even though such “tradition” never really existed.

… Change is the only constant, and history is full of ironies.

[Taylor Prewitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of the book, I'd give four stars. Exactly what I was looking for in terms of reading on the mythos of the small town. Second half is still interesting, but less so (to my personal tastes). Second half is more about neighborhood planning and how "main street" as an idea has influenced such planning.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, somewhat selective tour through the iconography of "Main Street" in the US over the past century or so. Orvell spends a substantial--and worthwhile--amount of pages on Sinclair Lewis, Frank Capra, and the Lynds' Middletown books, but the heart of the project is clearly in analyzing the transformations of the Main Street ideal in the visionary/flawed housing projects flowing from the garden city utopias promoted by Lewis Mumford and assimilated (at quite a distance) by later New Urbanist developers.

[steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Death and Life of Main Street. Orvell builds upon much already written by the likes of Richard V. Francaviglia. There are hints of Gaston Bachelard as well. Orvell does not take the sentimental view of small towns always in decline, always disappearing off the face of the earth. He does not take a nostalgic view towards his topic, though he may start there. Nicely done, nicely academic. Enjoyable.