Suburbia has twisted the American dream into a nightmare. The US now has the most
rapes, assaults, murders and serial killings per capita, by a wide margin, than any other
first-world nation. It's a Sprawl World After All is the first book to link America's increase in
violence and the corresponding breakdown in society with the post WWII development of
suburban sprawl.
Without small towns to bring people together, the unplanned growth of sprawl has left
Americans isolated, alienated and afraid of the strangers that surround them. Suburbia has
substituted cars for conversation, malls for main streets, and the artificial community of
television for authentic social interaction. This has resulted in dramatically negative
impacts on US society, including:
- the transformation of America's community-oriented small-town sensibilities into an
isolated society of strangers burdened by isolation, loneliness and depression
- the emergence of a culture of incivility characterized by extreme individualism and a
callous disregard for others, and
- levels of violence so rampant as to be proclaimed "epidemic" by the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
Advocating that urgent attention be paid to managing development by emulating the smart
growth examples of European cities, the book's final section offers readers tools to rebuild
community in their lives as well as in society at large. It offers practical solutions that can
improve everyone's quality of life.
Provocative and thoughtful, It's A Sprawl World After All also includes a helpful resource
listing of organizations committed to making communities more sustainable.
About the Contributor(s)
Douglas E. Morris is a freelance writer whose 14 years experience of living outside the U.S.
in a number of safe urban areas has given him unique insights into cross-cultural urban
comparisons. He has published numerous articles on the topic in the last seven years.
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