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Marilynne Robinson's mythical world of Gilead, Iowa -- the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack -- and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Jack is Robinson's fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead's Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now.
Introduction -- 'How to provide housing for the people': origins -- 'The world of the future': the interwar period -- 'If only we will': Britain reimagined, 1940-51 -- 'The needs of the people': council housing, 1945-56 -- 'Get these people out of the slums': 1956-68 -- 'Anti-monumental, anti-stylistic, and fit for ordinary people': 1968-79 -- 'Rolling back the frontiers of the state': 1979-91 -- 'Thrown-away places': 1991-7 -- 'A different kind of community': 1997-2010 -- 'People need homes; these homes need people': 2010 to the present
Lynsey Hanley was born and raised just outside of Birmingham on what was then the largest council estate in Europe, and she has lived for years on an estate in London's East End. Writing with passion, humour and a sense of history, she recounts the rise of social housing a century ago, its adoption as a fundamental right by leaders of the social welfare state in the mid-century and its decline - as both idea and reality - in the 1960s and '70s. Throughout, Hanley focuses on how shifting trends in urban planning and changing government policies - from Homes Fit for Heroes to Le Corbusier's concrete tower blocks, to the Right to Buy - affected those so often left out of the argument over council estates: the millions of people who live on them. What emerges is a vivid mix of memoir and social history, an engaging and illuminating book about a corner of society that the rest of Britain has left in the dark.
A captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome. ***TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK*** 'A punchy polemic ... Highly readable.' 'A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.' NINA STIBBE 'Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.' DANNY DORLING 'An eloquent, witty, passionate tour of Britain since the 1980s.' JOHN BOUGHTON 'Recounts the stories of our lived landscapes with wit, passion and a shot of anger.' TOM DYCKHOFF 'Grindrod has spoken to everyone and his observations are humane and acute.' OWEN HATHERLEY Wimpey homes. Millennium monuments. Riverside flats...
This new book explores Britain's intensely urban and increasingly global communities as interlocking pieces of a complex jigsaw; they are hard to see apart yet they are deeply unequal. Jigsaw Cities examines these issues using Birmingham, Britain's second city, as a model of pioneering urban order and as a victim of brutal Modernist planning.
A profound collection of interviews with residents of a 1980's South London housing estate; a human symphony of the everyday, in all its courageous diversity.
A narrative history of council housing—from slums to the Grenfell Tower Urgent, timely and compelling, Municipal Dreams brilliantly brings the national story of housing to life. In this landmark reappraisal of council housing, historian John Boughton presents an alternative history of Britain. Rooted in the ambition to end slum living, and the ideals of those who would build a new society, Municipal Dreams looks at how the state’s duty to house its people decently became central to our politics. The book makes it clear why that legacy and its promise should be defended. Traversing the nation in this comprehensive social, political and architectural history of council housing, Boughton of...
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Often misunderstood, the New Towns story is a fascinating one of anarchists, artists, visionaries, and the promise of a new beginning for millions of people. New Towns: The Rise Fall and Rebirth offers a new perspective on the New Towns Record and uses case-studies to address the myths and realities of the programme. It provides valuable lessons for the growth and renewal of the existing New Towns and post-war housing estates and town centres, including recommendations for practitioners, politicians and communities interested in the renewal of existing New Towns and the creation of new communities for the 21st century.