City Dreams, Country Schemes: Community and Identity in the American West (The Urban West Series)

The American West, from the beginning of Euro-American settlement, has been shaped by diverse ideas about how to utilize physical space and natural environments to create cohesive, sometimes exclusive community identities. When westerners developed their towns, they constructed spaces and cultural identities that reflected alternative understandings of modern urbanity. The essays in __City Dreams, Country Schemes__ utilize an interdisciplinary approach to explore the ways that westerners conceptualized, built, and inhabited urban, suburban, and exurban spaces in the twentieth century. The contributors examine such topics as the attractions of open space and rural gentrification in shaping urban development; the role of tourism in developing national parks, historical sites, and California's Napa Valley; and the roles of public art, gender, and ethnicity in shaping urban centers. __City Dreams, Country Schemes__ reveals the values and expectations that have shaped the West and the lives of the people who inhabit it. Introduction / Amy L. Scott And Kathleen A. Brosnan -- The Wishful West / John M. Findlay -- Pt. 1. The Metropolitan Retreat To The Eco-urban -- Crafting The Good Life In Irvine, California / Stephanie Kolberg -- Open-space Politics In Boulder, Colorado / Amy L. Scott -- Wilderburbs And Rocky Mountain Development / Lincoln Bramwell -- Middle-class Migration And Rural Gentrification In Western Montana / Rina Ghose -- Pt. 2. Tourism, Memory, And Western Urban Identities -- Urbanity And Pastoralism In Napa Tourism / Kathleen A. Brosnan -- Family Travel, National Parks, And The Cold War West / Susan S. Rugh -- Public Art, Memory, And Mobility In 1920s New Mexico / Jeffrey C. Sanders -- Reclaiming Cannery Row's Industrial History / Connie Y. Chiang -- Seattle's Pike Place Market / Judy Mattivi Morley -- Pt. 3. From Cultural And Geographic Margins To Urban Centers -- The Making Of San Francisco's Queer Urban Scene / Nan Alamilla Boyd -- San Francisco, Red Power, And The Emergence Of An Indian City / Kent Blansett -- Gay Male Rural-urban Migration In The American West / Peter Boag. Edited By Kathleen A. Brosnan And Amy L. Scott. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This collection of 13 papers explores the contested ways in which Americans in the western United States conceptualized, built, and inhabited urban, suburban, and exurban spaces over the course of the 20th century and the ways in which these contested practices led to social transformations, new political identities, and distinctive regional urban forms. Editors Brosnan (history, U. of Houston) and Scott (history, Bradley U.) have organized the papers into three sections: "The Metropolitan Retreat to the Eco-Urban," which examines the movement of middle- and upper-middle class urbanites to university towns and foothill communities on the metropolitan fringes; "Tourism, Memory, and Western Urban Identities," which examines the impact of tourism on landscapes and social status; and "From Cultural and Geographic Margins to Urban Centers," which focuses on how marginalized groups sought out social cohesion and shared identities in urban cores deserted by previous residents. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) The essays in City Dreams, Country Schemes utilise an interdisciplinary approach to explore the ways that westerners conceptualised, built, and inhabited urban, suburban, and exurban spaces in the twentieth century.