Boomburbs: The Rise of America's Accidental Cities

Back Cover

“Lang and LeFurgy are that most rare of suburban chroniclers; they are describing the place based on research. Almost everyone else who weighs in on the subject, whether apologist or critic, has an ax to grind. . . . This is an immensely readable book for the lay person or the scholar.” —JOURNAL OF PLANNING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH “Boomburbs should become a classic in the field and required reading for all students of the early twenty-first-century American metropolis.” —JON TEAFORD, professor of history, Purdue University “The wealth of statistical and contextual analyses of these places makes the book valuable for graduate students and faculty in urban affairs, as well as for city planners.” —CHOICE “Boomburbs is an excellent adventure through the evolution of these places, the people who inhabit them, the housing typologies that went from the craftsman house to the ranch to the McMansion, and the commercial and workplace economies that have emerged along the wide arterials and left-turn lanes.” —ANTHONY FLINT on The Business of Government Hour “A valuable addition to the literature of growth and development in the United States.” —CIVIL ENGINEERING “Urban and metropolitan studies have been mired for too long in a false dichotomy about cities and suburbs. Boomburbs is an important book because it leaves all that baggage behind and describes fast-growing American communities as they really are—big yet small, tedious yet vibrant, pimply yet mature.” —BILL FULTON, author of The Reluctant Metropolis and The Regional City Robert E. Lang is co-director of the Metropolitan Institute and a professor in the Urban Affairs and Planning graduate program at Virginia Tech. He is the author of Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropolis (Brookings). Jennifer B. LeFurgy is a writer and consultant in Alexandria, Virginia. She was formerly deputy director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS Washington, D.C. www.brookings.edu Cover design and collage by Rogue Element Images provided by Getty Images ...