The Sprawl: Reconsidering The Weird American Suburbs

"The Sprawl is something you should read whether you grew up in the suburbs or not. Jason Diamond intersperses historical accounts with personal anecdotes from his own suburban Chicago childhood, and he finds the right balance. He doesn’t look to idealize suburbs, given their socially dubious origins. Instead, he expertly explores a common suburban sentiment – that something seems to be missing. And that desire to fill that missing something is what potentially makes suburban life the last thing its original advocates conceived it could be: dynamic."