Radical Suburbs

American suburbs are not the homogeneous places we sometimes take them for. Today's suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The clichâeof white picket fences is well past its expiration date. The history of suburbia is equally surprising: American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially-conscious design, and integrated housing. We have forgotten that we built suburbs like these, such as a co-housing commune near Pittsburgh, a tiny-house anarchist community in New Jersey, a government-planned garden city in the DC suburbs, and a racially integrated subdivision outside Philadelphia. Radical suburbs is a history that will help us remake the future and rethink our assumptions of suburbia--Back cover.