The New Suburban History

by Kevin M. Kruse (Editor), Thomas J. Sugrue (Editor)

America has become a nation of suburbs. Confronting the popular image of suburbia as simply a refuge for affluent whites, The New Suburban History rejects the stereotypes of a conformist and conflict-free suburbia. The seemingly calm streets of suburbia were, in fact, battlegrounds over race, class, and politics. With this collection, Kevin Kruse and Thomas Sugrue argue that suburbia must be understood as a central factor in the modern American experience. 

Kruse and Sugrue here collect ten essays—augmented by their provocative introduction—that challenge our understanding of suburbia. Drawing from original research on suburbs across the country, the contributors recast important political and social issues in the context of suburbanization. Their essays reveal the role suburbs have played in the transformation of American liberalism and conservatism; the contentious politics of race, class, and ethnicity; and debates about the environment, land use, and taxation. The contributors move the history of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and blue-collar workers from the margins to the mainstream of suburban history.

From this broad perspective, these innovative historians explore the way suburbs affect—and are affected by—central cities, competing suburbs, and entire regions. The results, they show, are the emergence of a suburban America has reshaped national politics, fostered new social movements, and remade the American landscape. The New Suburban History offers nothing less than a new American history—one that claims the nation cannot be fully understood without a history of American suburbs at its very center.

Genres: History, Sociology, Political Science, Nonfiction, Politics, Cities, World War II

289 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2006

About the author

Kevin M. Kruse (PhD, Cornell University) is Professor of History at Princeton University. Dr. Kruse studies the political, social, and urban/suburban history of 20th-century America. Focused on conflicts over race, rights, and religion, he has particular interests in segregation and the civil rights movement, the rise of religious nationalism and the making of modern conservatism.

Reviews

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent histories of American suburbs and personally valuable context for growing up in the suburban DMV. (And being over 30, although if you're younger it's still your history.) Gerald Frug recommends metropolis-wide school choice that "would not undermine neighborhood schools ... unless, of course, these schools continue to be as radically unequal as they are now" which yes, of course they will. But aside from that sour note on the second-to-last page, and Arnold Hirsch's bad-academic writing in Chapter 2 -- so very good.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of hot air from various authors, imputing nefarious purposes to large swaths of the people with no supporting sources. The only redeeming factor was that it did give you some understanding of the chronology of events which occurred, even though the analysis and explanation of those events were nauseatingly trite and left-wing.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep, this is the kind of stuff I read for fun. This took a while to get through, but it's impressive and I learned quite a bit.