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Suburbanization is often blamed for a loss of civic engagement in contemporary America. How justified is this claim? Just what is a suburb? How do social environments shape civic life? Looking beyond popular stereotypes, Democracy in Suburbia answers these questions by examining how suburbs influence citizen participation in community and public affairs. Eric Oliver offers a rich, engaging account of what suburbia means for American democracy and, in doing so, speaks to the heart of widespread debate on the health of our civil society. Applying an innovative, unusually rigorous mode of statistical analysis to a wealth of unique survey and census data, Oliver argues that suburbs, by institutionalizing class and racial differences with municipal boundaries, transform social conflicts between citizens into ones between political institutions. In reducing the incentives for individual political participation, suburbanization has negated the benefits of ''small town'' government and deprived metropolitan areas of valuable civic capacity. This ultimately increases prospects of serious social conflict. Oliver concludes that we must reconfigure suburban governments to allow seemingly intractable issues of common metropolitan concern to surface in local politics rather than be ignored as cross-jurisdictional. And he believes this is possible without sacrifice of local government's advantages. Scholars and students of political science, sociology, and urban affairs will prize this book for its striking findings, its revealing scrutiny of the commonplace, and its insights into how the pursuit of the American dream may be imperiling American democracy.

Suburbs --- Democracy --- USA. --- USA --- United States. --- Aristotle. --- Atlanta (Georgia). --- Black Panthers. --- Bobo, Lawrence. --- Brehm, John. --- Camden (New Jersey). --- Celebration (Florida). --- Census of Governments (1987). --- Cisneros, Henry. --- Danielson, Michael. --- Dixmoor (Illinois). --- Downs, Anthony. --- Duany, Andres. --- Ehrenhalt, Alan. --- FIPS codes (Census Bureau). --- Fair Housing Act (1968). --- Frantz, Douglas. --- Garreau, Joel. --- Green Guerillas (NYC). --- Guterbock, Thomas. --- Huckfeldt, Robert. --- Insight Meditation Society (Boston). --- Jackson, Kenneth. --- Kerner Commission (1968). --- Langdon, Philip. --- Levitt, Abraham. --- London, Bruce. --- Mansbridge, Jane. --- Mount Vernon (New York). --- Organization Man (Whyte). --- Pateman, Carole. --- Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth. --- Rusk, David. --- Russo, Anthony. --- Rybczynski, Witold. --- Stone, Clarence. --- Taylor, Marylee. --- Tufte, Edward. --- altruistic behavior. --- city manager government. --- civic capacity perspective. --- civic voluntarism model. --- classical liberal assessment. --- edge cities. --- ethnic identity. --- growth machine model. --- mayor-council governments. --- political party patronage. --- political struggle. --- public works. --- rational choice theory. --- urban political machines. --- voluntary organizations. --- Local government --- Political participation --- Segregation --- Social stratification --- Suburban life

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For many Americans, the Midwest is a vast unknown. In Remaking the Heartland, Robert Wuthnow sets out to rectify this. He shows how the region has undergone extraordinary social transformations over the past half-century and proven itself surprisingly resilient in the face of such hardships as the Great Depression and the movement of residents to other parts of the country. He examines the heartland's reinvention throughout the decades and traces the social and economic factors that have helped it to survive and prosper. Wuthnow points to the critical strength of the region's social institutions established between 1870 and 1950--the market towns, farmsteads, one-room schoolhouses, townships, rural cooperatives, and manufacturing centers that have adapted with the changing times. He focuses on farmers' struggles to recover from the Great Depression well into the 1950s, the cultural redefinition and modernization of the region's image that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, the growth of secondary and higher education, the decline of small towns, the redeployment of agribusiness, and the rapid expansion of edge cities. Drawing his arguments from extensive interviews and evidence from the towns and counties of the Midwest, Wuthnow provides a unique perspective as both an objective observer and someone who grew up there. Remaking the Heartland offers an accessible look at the humble yet strong foundations that have allowed the region to endure undiminished.

Agriculture --- Social change --- Community development --- Farming --- Husbandry --- Regional development --- Change, Social --- Cultural change --- Cultural transformation --- Societal change --- Socio-cultural change --- Economic aspects --- Citizen participation --- Government policy --- Middle West --- American Midwest --- Central States --- Central States Region --- Midwest --- Midwest States --- Midwestern States --- North Central Region --- North Central States --- Economic conditions. --- Social conditions. --- Industrial arts --- Life sciences --- Food supply --- Land use, Rural --- Economic assistance, Domestic --- Social planning --- Social history --- Social evolution --- Mississippi River Valley --- Northwest, Old --- E-books --- American heartland. --- Garden City. --- Great Depression. --- Kansas. --- Middle West. --- Polly Spence. --- Smith Center. --- Smith County. --- Wild West. --- William F. Cody. --- World War II. --- agrarian life. --- agribusiness. --- agriculture. --- biotechnology. --- colleges and universities. --- drought. --- dust storms. --- economy. --- edge cities. --- education. --- educational attainment. --- exurbs. --- farming. --- farms. --- farmsteads. --- feedlots. --- food production. --- friendliness. --- heartland. --- hospitality. --- housing developments. --- industrial sector. --- ingenuity. --- land. --- landownership. --- landscape. --- literacy. --- manufacturing centers. --- market towns. --- meatpacking plants. --- medical research. --- middle America. --- military. --- modernization. --- nostalgia. --- oil. --- population. --- public schools. --- racism. --- rural communities. --- rural cooperatives. --- rural education. --- rustic life. --- rustics. --- shopping malls. --- small communities. --- small towns. --- social change. --- social life. --- social problems. --- social transformations. --- suburbs. --- townships.