Victorian visions of suburban utopia : abandoning Babylon /
"The rise of suburbs and disinvestment from cities have been defining features of life in many countries over the course of the twentieth century, especially English-speaking ones. The separation of different aspects of life, such as living and working, and the diffusion of the population in fa...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
2020.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "The rise of suburbs and disinvestment from cities have been defining features of life in many countries over the course of the twentieth century, especially English-speaking ones. The separation of different aspects of life, such as living and working, and the diffusion of the population in far-flung garden homes have necessitated an enormous consumption of natural lands and the constant use of mechanized transportation. Why did we abandon our dense, complex urban places and seek to find "the best of the city and the country" in the flowery suburbs? A large missing piece in this story is found in Victorian utopian literature. The replacement of cities with high-tech suburbs was repeatedly imagined and breathlessly described in the socialist dreams and science-fiction fantasies of dozens of British and American authors in the nineteenth century. Some of these visionaries--such as Robert Owen, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Ebenezer Howard, and H. G. Wells--are enduringly famous, while others were street vendors or amateur chemists who have been all but forgotten. Together, they fashioned strange and beautiful imaginary worlds built of synthetic gemstones, lacy metal colonnades, and unbreakable glass, staffed by robotic servants and teeming with flying carriages. As different as their futuristic visions could be in their politics or narrative qualities, most were unified by a single, desperate plea: for humanity to have a future worth living, we must abandon our smoky, poor, chaotic Babylonian cities for a life in shimmering gardens"--Publisher's description. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xvi, 557 pages) : illustrations |
| Audience: | Specialized. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780192605863 0192605860 9780191893438 0191893439 9780192605870 0192605879 |