Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America

by Gwendolyn Wright

Book Overview

The evolution of housing in America.

This book is concerned essentially with the model of domestic environment in this country, as it has evolved from colonial architecture through current urban projects. Beginning with Puritan townscape, topics include urban row housing, Big House and slave quarters, factory housing, rural cottages, Victorian suburbs, urban tenements, apartment life, bungalows, company towns, planned residential communities,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262730642
• ISBN13: 9780262730648
• Release Date: April 1983
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Good straightforward background to housing

Although a little dated, this book provides a good, straightforward, easy to read background on housing in America. It touches on the historical reasons why we prefer the single-family suburban house yet also explores other housing types and their origins.

Fascinating as study of both architechture and history.

Wright starts at the beginning and explains how the American experience has effected American architechture, and vice versa. Weaving religious, social and economic conditions into her story of how Americans came to live in the structures that they call home, Wright's book is one of the few "page-turners" that I've encountered among architechture books. It's indespensible to the student of American history. --David Macia