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Property Values - by  Joshua Specht (Hardcover) - 1 of 1

Property Values - by Joshua Specht (Hardcover)

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Highlights

  • A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis From its very beginnings, the United States has defined itself by its relationship to land.
  • About the Author: Joshua Specht is associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.
  • 408 Pages
  • History, United States

Description



Book Synopsis



A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis

From its very beginnings, the United States has defined itself by its relationship to land. Settlers saw the continent as the raw material for building a prosperous life while their leaders viewed it as a means for building a people. In the 1950s, the suburban home became a place for Americans to create a personal utopia of lawns and living rooms, of washing machines and dishwashers. Property Values traces how land and its ownership became inextricably tied to the American ideal of independence--and demonstrates why the Homestead Act and a thirty-year mortgage have far more in common than you think.

In this engaging book, Joshua Specht uncovers the history behind the American conviction that widespread land ownership is a fundamental requirement for a flourishing democratic society. We meet the nineteenth-century settler farmers whose dreams of new social and political forms were built on vast quantities of land taken from native peoples, and the European immigrants who came seeking a better life as land-owning citizens. For FDR, homeownership offered a path out of the depths of the Great Depression. For George W. Bush, it gave people a permanent stake in the American dream. Specht charts how the vision of plenty that first drew homesteaders westward gave way to one of scarcity and exclusion as new neighbors came to be seen as a threat to property values and a system meant to promote ownership put it squarely out of reach for many.

Taking readers from the rent wars of the early 1840s through the financial crisis of the late 2000s, Property Values reveals why housing affordability has posed significant challenges to the nation's politics and promise since the founding, and why the American story has always been one about land.



About the Author



Joshua Specht is associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton).
Dimensions (Overall): 9.25 Inches (H) x 6.12 Inches (W)
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 408
Genre: History
Sub-Genre: United States
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Theme: General
Format: Hardcover
Author: Joshua Specht
Language: English
Street Date: September 15, 2026
TCIN: 1007799269
UPC: 9780691238197
Item Number (DPCI): 247-37-2721
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details

Estimated ship dimensions: 1 inches length x 6.12 inches width x 9.25 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1 pounds
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