It is a paradox of American life that we are a highly urbanized nation
filled with people deeply ambivalent about urban life. An aversion to
urban density and all that it contributes to urban life, and a
perception that the city was the place where "big government" first took
root in America fostered what historian Steven Conn terms the
"anti-urban impulse." In response, anti-urbanists called for the
decentralization of the city, and rejected the role of government in
American life in favor of a return to the pioneer virtues of
independence and self-sufficiency.
In this provocative and sweeping audiobook, Conn explores the anti-urban
impulse across the 20th century, examining how the ideas born of it have
shaped both the places in which Americans live and work, and the
anti-government politics so strong today. Beginning in the booming
industrial cities of the Progressive era at the turn of the 20th
century, where debate surrounding these questions first arose, Conn
examines the progression of anti-urban movements. He describes the
decentralist movement of the 1930s, the attempt to revive the American
small town in the mid-century, the anti-urban basis of urban renewal in
the 1950s and '60s, and the Nixon administration's program of building
new towns as a response to the urban crisis, illustrating how, by the
middle of the 20th century, anti-urbanism was at the center of the
politics of the New Right.
Concluding with an exploration of the New Urbanist experiments at the
turn of the 21st century, Conn demonstrates the full breadth of the
anti-urban impulse, from its inception to the present day. Engagingly
written, thoroughly researched, and forcefully argued, Americans
Against the City is important for anyone who cares not just about the
history of our cities, but about their future as well.
