Main entry:

Spann, Edward K., 1931-2004.

Title & Author:

Designing modern America : the Regional Planning Association of America and its members / Edward K. Spann.

Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, ©1996.

Description:

xvi, 247 pages ; 23 cm

Series:

Urban life and urban landscape series

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-240) and index.
The view from the octagon: Charles Harris Whitaker -- Idealism in peace and war: Frederick L. Ackerman and Robert D. Kohn -- Green dimensions: Benton MacKaye -- Creation: Whitaker and Clarence Stein -- Toward a golden day: Lewis Mumford -- Planning New York state: Stein and Henry Wright -- Giant power: Stuart Chase and Robert Bruere -- Ups and downs, 1925-1926: Mumford et al. -- The sage and the siege of Shirley Center: Mackaye -- Sunnyside and Rayburn: Stein, Wright, and Alexander M. Bing -- Regionalism: Mumford, MacKaye, et al. -- Women on housing: Edith Elmer Wood and Catherine Bauer -- Housing--for whom and where?: Kohn and Stein -- Planning the Tennessee Region: Mackaye -- New deal or new order?: Mumford -- Three wise men: Chase, Ackerman, and Whitaker -- The Wright way -- Fadeout.

Summary:

This fascinating book examines the Regional Planning Association of American (RPAA), a loosely organized association of ambitious and influential planners who hoped to guide the new urban and industrial developments of the early twentieth century and thereby design a radically improved America. After discussing the roots of this effort in the Progressive and World War I periods, Edward K. Spann traces the development of the RPAA from its formation in 1923 through the decade of its greatest effort (which ended in 1934) to its decline and ultimate demise in the late 1930s.
Taking a biographical approach and drawing on both published works and private correspondence, the book focuses on the richly varied thoughts and activities of the leading members of the RPAA regarding significant aspects of urban and regional planning. This work should appeal not only to students of city and regional planning, of architecture, and of environmentalism, but to all those interested in the intellectual developments of the period between 1914 and 1938, especially as they relate to an important phase of modernization in the United States.

ISBN:

0814207227 (alk. paper)
9780814207222 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Regional Planning Association of America History.
Regional Planning Association of America
Regional planning United States History.
Aménagement du territoire États-Unis Histoire.
Regional planning
Geschichte
United States

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Urban life and urban landscape series.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 196188
Call No.: ID HT392.S6; ID:97-B1633
Status: Available