COMM 149F - City of Gardens

	Dr. Andrew Wood Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378 Andrew.Wood@sjsu.edu

City of Gardens


Should you ask why we love Greendale, Find it fun to work and play here, We all answer, all tell you . . . It's awakening to bird-song In the rosy dawn of springtime! Watching frisky squirrels cavorting! Romping space for pets and children, Far from city's threatening traffic! It's group picnics at grounds southward, And the suppers cooked o'er charcoal In one corner of our gardens; Baby's playpen in the sunshine, Knowing well that naught can harm him! - Vivian Husher, This is Greendale

Overview

We explore a counterpoint to utopia that manifested itself in nineteenth and twentieth century city planning. As corporations and trusts gird the nation with railroads and sell their ideologies with worlds fairs, some critics fear the dynamo - the "big generator" - that grows within the American garden of Eden. Fearing that our communities have become too mechanized, too planned, they call for a romantic rhetoric of arcadia - a mythical green space, a modern compromise with the forces of discipline.

Summary

Dr. Wood's summary of Ebenezer Howard Garden City of To-morrow [Town-Country Magnet]

Dr. Wood's Additional Resources

The 1893 Columbian Exposition

Representing History: Performing the Columbian Exposition [Notes on Rosemarie K. Bank's essay]

Even More Resources

Where the Future Came From: A Trip Through the 1893 Chicago World's Fair [Paleofuture]

Image Credit

Howard, E. (1902). Garden cities of to-morrow. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.