Bulldozer Revolutions: A Rural History of the Metropolitan South

Andrew C. Baker's book explores the history of the southern metropolis by examining the metropolitan fringes of Houston, Montgomery County, Texas, and Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County, Virginia. He argues that property owners who abandoned the city to live in the countryside during the twentieth century were the vanguard of the antigrowth movement and that the historical and environmental authenticity of the landscape served as a foil to the alienation and ugliness of suburbia.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 254 pages
Publication date: 01 September 2022
Publisher: University of Georgia Press

This book delves into the historical, environmental, and agricultural aspects of the metropolitan fringes of Houston, Montgomery County, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Loudoun County, Virginia, challenging our perception of the southern metropolis. By examining the experiences of local boosters, gentleman farmers, historical preservationists, and nature-seeking suburbanites who abandoned the city for the countryside during the twentieth century, Andrew C. Baker sheds light on the antigrowth movement that has shaped metropolitan fringe politics nationwide. In the rural South, these property owners sought to escape the troubling legacies of racism and rural poverty by creating new landscapes that celebrated a refashioned rural identity. Subdivisions, reservoirs, homesteads, and historical villages were constructed to obscure these legacies and create a sense of authenticity and beauty in the rural environment.

Baker's research is based on a comprehensive source base that includes records from preservation organizations, local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as oral histories. Through this analysis, he explores the distinct roots of environmental politics and the shifting relationship between city and country within these metropolitan fringe regions. The book provides a valuable insight into the complex dynamics that have shaped these areas and their impact on the broader landscape of American society.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780820363646