Americans and Their Land: The House Built on Abundance PDF
Preview Americans and Their Land: The House Built on Abundance
AMERICANS AND THEIR LAND AMERICANS AND THEIR LAND THE HOUSE BUILT ON ABUNDANCE ANNE MAGKIN To Ales, Isara, and Bait, soho opened before me the Inndsaape ofthe henet Capyrighe Pay Aone Mein v2 Pisa ie Usa Sats ol Anois ip The Unicity of Mihir Boe enrfaiesd nthe Unite? Stes of err oo Erinted en seb sper Nicer ier lees re nats nuyfom or hyany nas ani shri, ‘ones tan pei he lh hh re rn eRe Te ease angase gt ps Palo Dat Maden, ae Seis ashe lond fae Mei, tusks iingoass is etree atl, TEN gph pe vig qleoth fl pape TEIN oy geypoattggset abl, peso) Tanda Uhre! Suaer—Uisor 2, Land tensze—Usstes Sater Llioty 2, Densey Une Uisans. BT HDi Migs a0 ws tk poses Fipst are abe capes, them ars the sborelamals, now “Tie Hae Appatactians fain at the day rise: Moa a ‘Toe dow with light on the long Obio: “Tie lakes 30 ater He fos sas: the prairies Ske out of darks fn tbe ed of lean ai “Foe soe gnes up fin the bigh plains of W yung “Fhe seep Steevas anise: she sack Joan lame ad the asin’ eel nthe for Paci Archibald Macleish, “American Lewet™ CONTENTS Preface x Ineroduetion 1 Perpetual Growth m the Tand of Abundimes 3 Land: ‘Phe Farly Bird Special 23 “For the Enrichi Tosne Ts Wher “Another Civil War? 58 yofThamscles” 3 the Regulations Are 96 Owning Ohio 3 Farly Ohio and the Pate of the Family Farm 88 Cleveland The Industrial City 103, “Vom Jahnson and Henry George 104. Allome of One's Own 123 The Rising Price of the American Dream 135 Land and Livelihood in the West 147 The Dakotas 158 Watering the West 172 Americans and‘Ihair Land 91 Append dou Nuses iulgineats 2x6 Biktingrsphy 233 fade 247 PREFACE y fine ianpressions of the relationship Iierwven inericans and heir land came curing trips to my grandparents. Frvery lew months, mny mother, brother, and I piled into the car tu drive tw hours south fim Arlingwan, Virginia, 1 Rishmond, veith the com and xomatuey they yrear in their aimples ganden, my grand lather and grandmother gave ns their stories af grow up um farms at the tur of the Tust cmtury, stories oF their own grandparentsinda parole ol middle-class ancestors iarmersand elat= oe —that stretched all the way buck to che carly Luropem settlement of Virginia, In mg mind, the mists of amit morning mist on the Virginss hindseape 3 land with the aura of ancestry The first critique of the American landscape Tem remember hear ingame Irom my brother when we were teenazers. He had hitchhiked tw Florida wo see an Apollo hiunch and had hiked pure of the way Tack ‘an the Appalachian ‘Trail, rambling through the Smoky Mountains, Ucfore returning home, “What God has donvin the South is beautiful,” reporvedd my benther, usually an avowed atheist, “but whar men has done, . "Tle shook his head. Mt and isa the vore of euncempurary eriveism of the Arner The common answer is that the landscape ai deinneracy. in which everyune gets a little plot, should not nceessarily be beautiful but vom- fiytable and allondable un the majority, like a polyester leisure suit. Vhe history and the summer aft together, anomtiny: thy brother's casual assessment describes many pants of the connury n landscape, answer to thar answers that the Amerieam Kinseape expresses nor the Lriuumph of democracy sa much as the Lrianaph of eapitalismn. Tronly takesa litte travel, which T undertook occasionally in the fol- lowing yenrs, to learn thal, whatever the social, legal, and ecnnomic reasuns lar the appearance oF uur Tanlscepe, that kindseapee expresses uniquely American attinudes urward land, resonrees, and comrmnity. Sorting those attitudes, Pve found, could be a life's work—or the sub- ject ofa bon. Affer a few years of graduate school spent studying lmdseape archi- tectnre and phnning. I worked 28 a planner for the Commonwealth of assichesetts, Tspene we years drtwing the highss ss and Irck reads a Massachuselts en enule tie some af the communities my stave nilice was charyed with visiting. As on those carly tips «9 Richmond, when cour Family car passed the cheap-looking motels and Civil War markers of Route 1, Thal time wonder why pele buile on dhe fad in the way that they did. In fact, iLwas my job to wonder. ‘Chu hegan nay real education, Chats with lees! officials, questions and comments a1 publi meet= ings—all shove reveal! she diferent uconomies and personalities of the commmnities | visited. J found tens whose forvunes had risen and fallen with gnaient industri whl i farming, Want a teetile manu Tacturing, Same towns were fnegeten and pristine; some lorgwten and derelict, Sume had Leen overrun Ly mudern development and were now barely recognizable as distinct. places amid the sprawling, develop~ nent around ther, Sune Title tans threw tremendous energy aml goodwill into the struggle lor self-improvement, and same thumbed. their noses ac the idea of accepting so much as a street tree from state government. Others stil’ typically the allluent communities with uch tw proweroperated sophisticated! phinning: ayeneies of their onen vith powerful boards overseeing zoning and other aspects of dovclupmunt, In all ol these comnmunities, the compelling ferce that shaped the Ind did not arbe in any of the programs of state government— designed to preserve some of the natural hemty and enltaral history of the Massachusetts Tandscape hurt sith the pinsertul furces of come merce. Compared tothe robust pressures al real estate development the offorts of governmenc appeared relatively trogile and ineffeccual, UUhe culuural forces shaping the landscape became even clearer 1 mngafter Tlefesny state Job, retrrned ts weiging partetinne (nest slauue planning), and had children. Eor the fivst time, the commercial strip
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