Bourgeois Nightmares: Suburbia, 1870-1930The quintessential American suburbs, with their gracious single-family homes, large green lawns, and leaf-shaded streets, reflected not only residents’ dreams but nightmares, not only hopes but fears: fear of others, of racial minorities and lowincome groups, fear of themselves, fear of the market, and, above all, fear of change. These fears, and the restrictive covenants that embodied them, are the subject of Robert M. Fogelson’s fascinating new book.As Fogelson reveals, suburban subdividers attempted to cope with the deep-seated fears of unwanted change, especially the encroachment of “undesirable” people and activities, by imposing a wide range of restrictions on the lots. These restrictions ranged from mandating minimum costs and architectural styles for the houses to forbidding the owners to sell or lease their property to any member of a host of racial, ethnic, and religious groups. These restrictions, many of which are still commonly employed, tell us as much about the complexities of American society today as about its complexities a century ago. |
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acres African-Americans Americans Angeles apartment houses architectural Asian-Americans Association of Real Baltimore billboards Bouton Brendonwood building buyer California Cheney chickens Country Club District Deed Restrictions designed developers domestic animals Duncan McDuffie enforce exclusive fences Francis Wood Frederick Law Olmsted garden Guilford Hancock Park Hills homeowners Hycliff impose restrictions J. C. Nichols Jews Job File 71 Joel Hurt John Charles Olmsted Kansas City landscape late nineteenth live Loeb Library minimum cost requirements Monchow move neighborhood neighbors nuisance objectionable Oldfield Olmsted Brothers Olmsted Records Palos Verdes Estates Park Company Records property owners prospective purchasers Protective Restrictions quote race racial covenants Real Estate Boards residential residents restrictive covenants River Oaks Roland Park Company Roland Park Review saloons sell strictions stringent subdividers suburban suburbanites suburbia Supreme Court Third Annual Conference tions tract U.S. Supreme Court undesirable Urban Vanderlip well-to-do wrote York