Greenbelt, Maryland : a living legacy of the New Deal / Cathy D. Knepper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knepper, Cathy D.

Contributor:

Center for American Places.

Series:

Creating the North American landscape

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Planned communities.

Greenbelt (Md.)--History.

Greenbelt (Md.).

Planned communities--United States--Case studies.

United States.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 275 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Summary:

Built in the 1930s on worn-out tobacco land between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the planned community of Greenbelt, Maryland, was designed to provide homes for low-income families as well as jobs for its builders. In keeping with the spirit of the New Deal, the physical design of the town contributed to cooperation among its residents, and the government further encouraged cooperation by helping residents form business cooperatives and social organizations. In Greenbelt, Maryland, Cathy D. Knepper offers the first comprehensive look at this important social experiment. Knepper describes the origins of Greenbelt, the ideology of its founders, and their struggle to create a cooperative planned community in the capitalist United States. She tells how the town, saved at one point by the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt, struggled through the McCarthy years, when it was branded "socialistic" and even "communistic." In conclusion, she provides a timely analysis of those qualities that not only helped the town survive but also served as the model for currents in urban development that have once again come into vogue in such movements as the new urbanism and traditional neighborhood development.

Contents:

I Greenbelt's Founding

1 Building a Planned Community 13

2 Creating a Cooperative Community 40

II Change and Continuity

3 The War Years 61

4 The Government versus Greenbelt 79

III Threats to Greenbelt's Plan and Cooperation

5 Developers versus Greenbelt 121

6 Overcoming Difficulties in Cooperation 161

IV A Town for the Ages

7 The Persistence of the Greenbelt Idea 181

8 Greenbelt Today and Tomorrow 209.

Notes:

"Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Harrisonburg, Virginia and Santa Fe, New Mexico"--[Prelim. p. iii].

Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-264) and index.

ISBN:

0801864909

OCLC:

46670572