Table Of ContentAMERICANS
AND THEIR
LAND
AMERICANS
AND THEIR
LAND
THE HOUSE
BUILT ON
ABUNDANCE
ANNE MAGKIN
To Ales, Isara, and Bait,
soho opened before me
the Inndsaape ofthe henet
Capyrighe Pay Aone Mein v2
Pisa ie Usa Sats ol Anois ip
The Unicity of Mihir Boe
enrfaiesd nthe Unite? Stes of err
oo Erinted en seb sper
Nicer ier lees re
nats nuyfom
or hyany nas ani shri,
‘ones tan pei he lh
hh re rn eRe Te
ease angase gt ps Palo Dat
Maden, ae
Seis ashe lond fae Mei,
tusks iingoass is etree atl,
TEN gph pe vig qleoth fl pape
TEIN oy geypoattggset abl, peso) Tanda Uhre!
Suaer—Uisor 2, Land tensze—Usstes Sater Llioty
2, Densey Une Uisans. BT
HDi Migs a0
ws tk poses
Fipst are abe capes, them ars the sborelamals, now
“Tie Hae Appatactians fain at the day rise:
Moa a
‘Toe
dow with light on the long Obio:
“Tie lakes 30
ater He fos sas: the prairies
Ske out of darks fn tbe ed of lean ai
“Foe soe gnes up fin the bigh plains of W yung
“Fhe seep Steevas anise: she sack Joan
lame ad the asin’ eel nthe for Paci
Archibald Macleish, “American Lewet™
CONTENTS
Preface x
Ineroduetion 1
Perpetual Growth m the Tand of Abundimes 3
Land: ‘Phe Farly Bird Special 23
“For the Enrichi
Tosne Ts Wher
“Another Civil War? 58
yofThamscles” 3
the Regulations Are 96
Owning Ohio 3
Farly Ohio and the Pate of the Family Farm 88
Cleveland The Industrial City 103,
“Vom Jahnson and Henry George 104.
Allome of One's Own 123
The Rising Price of the American Dream 135
Land and Livelihood in the West 147
The Dakotas 158
Watering the West 172
Americans and‘Ihair Land 91
Append
dou
Nuses
iulgineats 2x6
Biktingrsphy 233
fade 247
PREFACE
y fine ianpressions of the relationship Iierwven inericans and
heir land came curing trips to my grandparents. Frvery lew
months, mny mother, brother, and I piled into the car tu drive tw hours
south fim Arlingwan, Virginia, 1 Rishmond,
veith the com and xomatuey they yrear in their aimples
ganden, my grand lather and grandmother gave ns their stories af grow
up um farms at the tur of the Tust cmtury, stories oF their own
grandparentsinda parole ol middle-class ancestors iarmersand elat=
oe —that stretched all the way buck to che carly Luropem settlement of
Virginia, In mg mind, the mists of amit
morning mist on the Virginss hindseape 3
land with the aura of ancestry
The first critique of the American landscape Tem remember hear
ingame Irom my brother when we were teenazers. He had hitchhiked
tw Florida wo see an Apollo hiunch and had hiked pure of the way Tack
‘an the Appalachian ‘Trail, rambling through the Smoky Mountains,
Ucfore returning home, “What God has donvin the South is beautiful,”
reporvedd my benther, usually an avowed atheist, “but whar men has
done, . "Tle shook his head.
Mt
and isa the vore of euncempurary eriveism of the Arner
The common answer is that the landscape ai deinneracy. in which
everyune gets a little plot, should not nceessarily be beautiful but vom-
fiytable and allondable un the majority, like a polyester leisure suit. Vhe
history and the summer
aft together, anomtiny: thy
brother's casual assessment describes many pants of the connury
n landscape,
answer to thar answers that the Amerieam Kinseape expresses nor the
Lriuumph of democracy sa much as the Lrianaph of eapitalismn.
Tronly takesa litte travel, which T undertook occasionally in the fol-
lowing yenrs, to learn thal, whatever the social, legal, and ecnnomic
reasuns lar the appearance oF uur Tanlscepe, that kindseapee expresses
uniquely American attinudes urward land, resonrees, and comrmnity.
Sorting those attitudes, Pve found, could be a life's work—or the sub-
ject ofa bon.
Affer a few years of graduate school spent studying lmdseape archi-
tectnre and phnning. I worked 28 a planner for the Commonwealth of
assichesetts, Tspene we years drtwing the highss
ss and Irck reads
a Massachuselts en enule tie some af the communities my stave nilice
was charyed with visiting. As on those carly tips «9 Richmond, when
cour Family car passed the cheap-looking motels and Civil War markers
of Route 1, Thal time wonder why pele buile on dhe fad in the
way that they did. In fact, iLwas my job to wonder. ‘Chu hegan nay real
education,
Chats with lees! officials, questions and comments a1 publi meet=
ings—all shove reveal! she diferent uconomies and personalities of
the commmnities | visited. J found tens whose forvunes had risen and
fallen with gnaient industri whl
i farming, Want a teetile manu
Tacturing, Same towns were fnegeten and pristine; some lorgwten and
derelict, Sume had Leen overrun Ly mudern development and were
now barely recognizable as distinct. places amid the sprawling, develop~
nent around ther, Sune Title tans threw tremendous energy aml
goodwill into the struggle lor self-improvement, and same thumbed.
their noses ac the idea of accepting so much as a street tree from state
government. Others stil’ typically the allluent communities with
uch tw proweroperated sophisticated! phinning: ayeneies of their
onen vith powerful boards overseeing zoning and other aspects of
dovclupmunt,
In all ol these comnmunities, the compelling ferce that shaped the
Ind did not arbe in any of the programs of state government—
designed to preserve some of the natural hemty and enltaral history of
the Massachusetts Tandscape hurt sith the pinsertul furces of come
merce. Compared tothe robust pressures al real estate development
the offorts of governmenc appeared relatively trogile and ineffeccual,
UUhe culuural forces shaping the landscape became even clearer 1
mngafter Tlefesny state Job, retrrned ts weiging partetinne (nest slauue
planning), and had children. Eor the fivst time, the commercial strip
