"It is crammed with curious facts, among them a prediction that white people will become a minority of residents in Westchester by 2020."-Benjamin Genocchio, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[The companion to] an exhibition that traces the origins of suburban towns in Westchester County and examines various social influences on their development."-WESTCHESTER MAGAZINE

New York – Newly released by Fordham University Press and the Hudson River Museum, WESTCHESTER: THE AMERICAN SUBURB (Fordham University Press, January 2006; $44.95, Cloth, $24.95, Paper) is a fascinating chronicle-in words and images-of the history, development, and character of suburban America with an illuminating account of one of its signature places: Westchester, New York.

Designed as a companion to a major exhibition at The Hudson River Museum, WESTCHESTER: THE AMERICAN SUBURB brings together original essays by leading historians and other experts, and a rich selection of photographs, paintings, maps, ephemera, and other images that track more than century of growth, development, and change.

The essays explore key themes that run through Westchester's legacy: the new transportation grids that make all suburbs possible, the suburban house as a new focal point for family life, the creation of a new domesticity, consumerism and community, architecture and nature. Also covered is the representation of suburban life in film, literature, art, photography, and the media.

From Washington Irving's Sunnyside home built in 1830 to the virtual New Rochelle home of The Dick Van Dyke Show's Rob and Laura Petrie, Westchester has been the iconic American suburb-loved and hated, desired and abandoned. Like the exhibition whose name it shares, this book is not just a testimony to a time gone by-but a vivid and provocative encounter with the porches, patios, and parkways that define the American dream.
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Westchester: The American Suburb
Roger Panetta, Foreword by Kenneth T. Jackson
New York / History / Arts
480 pages, 220 b&w illustrations, 24 pages in color
0-8232-2593-3, Cloth, $44.95
0-8232-2594-1, Paperback, $24.95
Copublished by Fordham University Press and the Hudson River Museum
Pub Date: Janaury 28, 2006
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CONTACT: KATE O'BRIEN, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS: 718-817-4782, [email protected].

Related Link: Fordham University Press - Westchester: The American Suburb

For more information contact:

Kate O'Brien
Fordham University Press
2546 Belmont Avenue, University Box L
Bronx
NY 10458
USA

Phone: 718-817
Fax: 718-817-4782
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.fordhampress.com