Publishers Weekly
08/24/2020
Urban policy researcher Lind sketches the history of housing in America and looks at emerging trends in her detailed and optimistic debut. Noting a lack of affordable housing in many cities and persistent racial disparities in homeownership rates, Lind tracks the shift from the boarding houses and apartment buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the suburban sprawl of the mid-20th century. According to Lind, Americans are now moving away from the predominant model of large single-family homes. Visits to a “commune” in a Manhattan townhouse and a 324-sq.-ft. “tiny home” in a Burlington, Vt., backyard reveal the attraction of “co-living” arrangements for young professionals and a rise in “accessory dwelling units” in cities with affordable housing shortages, respectively. Lind also profiles a real estate development company in Philadelphia that seeks to keep gentrification at bay by renting to low-income residents and providing access to medical care. A congenial and well-informed tour guide, Lind balances her hopeful outlook with a sincere acknowledgement of how deeply racial and class inequalities affect these matters. Urban planners, policymakers, affordable housing advocates, and real estate developers will want to take a look. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Diana Lind's "Brave New Home" is one of those invaluable books that offer a new, revelatory window on familiar problems. Faced with a host of societal challenges - economic inequality, loneliness, housing precarity, environmental degradation - Lind convincingly argues that the single-family home is at least partly to blame."—The New York Times Book Review
"A congenial and well-informed tour guide, Lind balances her hopeful outlook with a sincere acknowledgement of how deeply racial and class inequalities affect these matters."— Publishers Weekly
“Brave New Home is a compelling read for those willing to start reshaping the residential landscape to meet the needs of a brave, new future.”—ENTER
“Lind’s provocative and engaging book—which argues for an array of housing options that better address economic hardship, wellness, and the digital nomad—is more necessary than ever.”—Architectural Record
"In this bracing new book, Diana Lind, long one of America's sharpest thinkers on urban issues, delivers a wake-up call to a country whose mental and legal paradigms on housing are stuck in the past. Brave New Home is a necessary, important call to rethink America's monomania about the detached single-family house and start building communities and economic structures that work for the full range of families and lifestyles present in the country today."—Matthew Yglesias, Vox.com co-founder and author of One Billion Americans
"Can the history of single-family housing and its current challenges be an amusing, informative romp? In the case of Brave New Home, yes. It is also a refutation of the fear-based Pandemic-Think of the infinite dangers of city dwelling: Diana Lind argues that collectivist living and urbanism should remain our goals, even now."—Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America
"Here's a book that delivers on its promise. I know of no other single source that so completely and cogently explains the isolation en masse that characterizes American housing today, as well as the brilliant alternatives that may be just one zoning-code tweak away."—Jeff Speck, city planner and author of Walkable City
"From the COVID crisis to rampant inequality, it is time to reinvent the way we live. Utterly fascinating and incredibly important, Brave New Home shows how the single family suburban home has gone from the shining symbol of the American Dream to a veritable nightmare for our economy and society. The book builds on its detailed diagnosis to outline a prescription for creating new, better, more affordable and equitable housing options for a new century. A must read for city leaders, urbanists, and all those concerned with the future of our cities, economy, and society."—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class
"Brave New Home urges us to reimagine American housing policy and practice. Without major changes in what we build, we will only continue to see more unaffordable, segregated, unsustainable neighborhoods. By encouraging more flexible, affordable housing options, we can achieve cities that reflect the true diversity of American households. Only then will we have housing that furthers the goals of social justice and equity."—Darren Walker, president, Ford Foundation
Kirkus Reviews
2020-09-01
An urban policy specialist investigates housing choices in the U.S. and their economic, social, and environmental implications.
Much has changed in the housing picture since the rise in popularity of the single-family home, writes Lind, who tackles her subject with precision, on-the-ground reporting, and theoretical rigor. Just after World War I, the “Own Your Own Home” campaign arose in the wake of “a public health movement that was biased against the density of urban life, the family-centric approach to living, the creation of street-car transit, and the incentivizing of early suburbia.” However, problems with this much-institutionalized ideal became evident early on: isolation, housing costs, household upkeep, environmental inefficiency, and racism in the form of redlining, exclusionary housing regulations, and restrictive covenants. The author, executive director of the Arts + Business Council for Greater Philadelphia, argues that a more flexible approach to housing would cure many of these ills. This would counter the stigmas and classism attached to densely occupied habitations and promote the affordability, community, and simplicity of co-living, micro-apartments, and tiny houses. Although Lind occasionally slides into the hazy territory of “paradigm shifts” and a “brave new world,” she mostly works from steady ground. She proceeds from a history of housing modes in the U.S.—inns, boardinghouses, tenements, and apartments—to discussions of the streetcar suburbs and the more expansive sprawl that requires car travel. Not every reader will be enthusiastic about the concept of communal-style co-living arrangements (a tiny house may be more amenable), but the author delivers consistently solid arguments in favor of extended-family housing and other options outside the single-family paradigm. Humans, after all, are social beings and seek the comfort of a dependable community. “In co-living arrangements,” writes Lind, “there’s an open invitation to connect with people in common spaces.”
A vibrant case for a host of viable alternatives to the single-family home.
