Howard Mansfield

Howard Mansfield’s Cosmopolis: Yesterday’s Cities of the Future examines various futuristic architectural plans for cities from the Victorian & Edwardian eras through the Great Depression and the immediate postwar years. He examines how the architects and planners drew upon ideas in works like Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward or imagined a consumer paradise like in the world of 1960 envisioned at the 1939 World’s Fair’s perisphere. One theme that comes through in Mansfield’s examination is how the future always reflected the values of the present, either a focus on gardens or business, traffic or pedestrians, but always imagining bigger and more massive skyscrapers. Once the skyscraper captured the imagination, it never let go, with its art deco style inspiring everything from subsequent construction to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Mansfield’s book may appeal to cultural historians, but works best as a coffee table book for those interested in architecture.… (más)

Our deeply embedded (and cherished) desires for property ownership and sense of home and history are torn apart by Mansfield in this honest look at this hidden side of US history.

From the border in the southwest to the Maine shoreline, Mansfield shares vignettes to illustrate how we got here and what was lost by so many to gain it.

I wish there was a light at the end of this book. From the first boat landing, to our current hunger for cheap natural gas energy, Americans have been both victim and oppressor in the story.

I have woken from the American dream.… (más)

The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down is an eloquent and occasionally heartbreaking exploration of the American notion of property, a deep dive into how something we take for granted today—the ownership of land—is infinitely more complex. I appreciate especially the historical look at how our legal system, which gives priority to the "exuberantly active" citizen over the quiet one, has shaped everything from the government's disastrous interactions with indigenous peoples (who had a very different relationship to their land) to eminent domain property seizures that are leaving homeowners feeling robbed and defeated, and to the changing boundaries of our land itself as it is already, slowly, quietly, inexorably being altered by a changing climate. I'll join in his lament that our laws favor corporations over individuals, "progress" over stewardship.

This is the first book I've read by Mansfield, and I found it probing and beautifully written, and also deeply caring. A collection of themed essays rather than an overarching narrative or argument, this book gave me so much to think about. After finishing it, I am carrying about with me Mansfield's concluding metaphor that draws on a Buddhist notion of impermanence. This is a long view we need to hear and see more often. It was a pleasure to be in Mansfield's intelligent company, and I look forward to reading other of his books.… (más)