This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America
Engaging, vivid and provocative work. Written with analytical rigor but also a crafty journalistic eye for the human-interest story that crystallizes an abstract theme, this book merits inclusion in any library.(Library Journal)A panoramic and extraordinarily up-to-date account of the struggle over how America builds.(Philip LangdonNew Urban News)This Landoffers a provocative and insightful overview of the challenges of sprawl.(Boston Globe)Those who truly hate sprawl and want to fight back would be well advised to read this book.(Audubon)Well researched, well written... very personable and readable. Recommended for all readers.(Northeastern Naturalist)Flint provides a historical perspective on how we became a suburban nation... with the easy-flowing, narrative skill of a journalist.(Lawrence BluestoneArchitecture Boston)As an inquiry into the backlash against 'smart growth'... it offers valuable insights and unsettling observations from the frontlines of the battles over land use and suburban development.(Tom UrbaniakUrban Affairs Review)Cear, well-written overview of the sprawl debate.(Jackie BegleyBerkeley Planning Journal)With evidence growing regarding the impact of density on innovation and economic growth, Anthony Flint's excellentThis Landcouldn't come along at a better time. It's an essential read for those working to understand and build more vibrant and livable communities.(Richard Florida, author ofThe Rise of the Creative ClassandThe Flight of the Creative Class)A revealing portrait of how America lives today. His trenchant chronicling of the emerging smart growth movement's challenge to the suburban sprawl ethos is a clarion call for a national conversation about how the country should grow.(Ben Bradlee Jr., author and former Deputy Managing Editor of theBoston Globe)Among the hundreds of books about metropolitan growth,This Landstands out as an extremely engaging and perceptive chronicle of the current state of the smart growth and new urbanist movements. Highlighting the fundamental American tension between individual and collective purposes, Flint compellingly articulates the challenges ahead.(Ann Forsyth, Director, Metropolitan Design Center)This important book is spot-on in its analysis of America's deepening land use problems and refreshingly upbeat in its account of win-win solutions arising around the country. Flint's fingertip knowledge of detail is especially to be admired.(E. O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University)This Landis an important discussion of the future of America, its cities, and what lies outside of it.(Midwest Book Review)