Book Cover
Book
Author Clay, Grady.

Title Real places : an unconventional guide to America's generic landscape / Grady Clay
Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [1994]
©1994

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  973 Cla/Rpa  AVAILABLE
Description xxiii, 297 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
regular print
Contents Machine derived contents note: List of Entries -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Section One - The Center: The Death and Life of Centrality -- 1. Back There -- 2. Patches -- 3. Perks -- Section Two - The Front: The Struggle for Control -- 4. Ephermera -- 5. Testing Grounds -- 6. Border Zones -- Section Three - Out There: Life in the Great Beyond-the-Bypass -- 7. Power Vacuum -- 8. Opportunity Sites -- 9. The Limits -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index
Summary Clay explores the deep structure of human adjustment to time and place: to traffic and congestion, war, weather, and machines, and the expanding presence of other people. He also tracks the play of language as it opens up and represents real worlds, showing how place-naming is the key to managing new environments. From the boondocks to the back forty, from gastown to crack corner, we name these places to get a handle on the unfamiliar - to make them our own
Today's "good address" may be tomorrow's "changing neighborhood," with "drug scene" and even "ghost town" not too far off. The "edge of town" may be overrun with "speculative sites." A "depressed area" could be turning into a "growth area" and "lovers' lane" into a "trouble spot." In these "generic man-made sites," urban observer and commentator Grady Clay discovers the key to understanding our cultural geography. Although they can't be found by name on most maps, these places exist in every city and do similar work. Defined by cultural, political, and economic needs rather than any natural boundary, "Fall Color Country," "The Good Address," and "Disaster Area" are primarily creations of the human mind. These are just some of the places Clay takes us through in this delightful, original guidebook to our ever-changing man-made landscape
Analysis Social life
United States
Social life
United States
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [270]-290) and index
Subject Cities and towns -- Terms and phrases.
Landscapes -- United States.
Human geography -- United States.
SUBJECT United States -- Description and travel. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139993
United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140537
LC no. 94015006
ISBN 0226109461 (cloth : alk. paper)