City in a Garden: Environmental Transformations and Racial Justice in Twentieth-Century Austin, Texas - Hardcover

Busch, Andrew M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1469632632 ISBN 13: 9781469632636

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017

Synopsis

The natural beauty of Austin, Texas, has always been central to the city's identity. From the beginning, city leaders, residents, planners, and employers consistently imagined Austin as a natural place, highlighting the region's environmental attributes as they marketed the city and planned for its growth. Yet, as Austin modernized and attracted an educated and skilled labor force, the demand to preserve its natural spaces was used to justify economic and racial segregation. This effort to create and maintain a "city in a garden" perpetuated uneven social and economic power relationships throughout the twentieth century.

In telling Austin's story, Andrew M. Busch invites readers to consider the wider implications of environmentally friendly urban development. While Austin's mainstream environmental record is impressive, its minority groups continue to live on the economic, social, and geographic margins of the city. By demonstrating how the city's midcentury modernization and progressive movement sustained racial oppression, restriction, and uneven development in the decades that followed, Busch reveals the darker ramifications of Austin's green growth.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew M. Busch is senior lecturer and program director of American studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1469632632
• ISBN 13: 9781469632636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336