Southern Landscapes in the City’s Shadow: Environmental Politics and Metropolitan Growth in Texas and Virginia, 1900-1990

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dc.contributor.advisorBoles, John B.en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMatusow, Allen J.en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberWittenberg, Gordonen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMelosi, Martin Ven_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberHall, Randal Len_US
dc.creatorBaker, Andrew C.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-04T20:39:49Zen_US
dc.date.available2015-05-01T05:01:02Zen_US
dc.date.created2014-05en_US
dc.date.issued2014-04-16en_US
dc.date.submittedMay 2014en_US
dc.date.updated2014-08-04T20:39:49Zen_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation explores the twentieth-century connections between city and countryside within the metropolitan South. Popular myths of suburbanization, reinforced by much of suburban historiography, envision a “crabgrass frontier” inexorably spreading suburbia into a static and defenseless countryside. This myth serves the ends of environmental, slow growth, and open space advocates. It does so, however, by obscuring the transformations, some imposed by the city and some endogenous to the countryside, that reshaped these rural landscapes into metropolitan hinterlands. Highways, airports, reservoirs, and early commuters bound these rural landscapes to the city before the arrival of suburban sprawl. This dissertation uses the histories of two southern metropolitan counties, one outside Houston, Texas, and the other in Northern Virginia, to examine the history of these rural counties as they simultaneously developed into metropolitan hinterlands and countryside, a reflection of urban conceptions of rural life. This project integrates rural, environmental, and agricultural history into the history of the metropolis in a way that calls urban historians to explore the city’s impact beyond suburbia and that challenges rural historians to allow these dynamic metropolitan rural areas to destabilize their larger narrative of a rural America left behind. Additionally, it examines the gentlemen farmers, historical preservationists, and nature-seeking suburbanites who abandoned the city to live in this countryside. These privileged white newcomers formed the vanguard of the anti-growth movement that defined metropolitan fringe politics across the nation. In the rural South, these activists obscured the troubling legacies of racism and rural poverty and celebrated a refashioned landscape whose historical and environmental authenticity served as an implicit critique of the alienation and ugliness of suburbia. Green pastures, historical preservation, horses, and white privilege defined this metropolitan fringe landscape. Using a source base that includes the records of preservation organizations and local, state, and federal government agencies, and oral histories, this project explores the distinct roots of the environmental politics and the shifting relationship between city and country within these southern metropolitan fringe regions.en_US
dc.embargo.terms2015-05-01en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationBaker, Andrew C.. "Southern Landscapes in the City’s Shadow: Environmental Politics and Metropolitan Growth in Texas and Virginia, 1900-1990." (2014) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/76349">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/76349</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/76349en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectSouthern statesen_US
dc.subjectNew Southen_US
dc.subjectSunbelten_US
dc.subjectFlood controlen_US
dc.subjectReservoiren_US
dc.subjectWater supplyen_US
dc.subjectDamsen_US
dc.subjectLake Conroe (Tex.)en_US
dc.subjectConroeen_US
dc.subjectSeneca Damen_US
dc.subjectRiverbend Damen_US
dc.subjectWashington, D.C.en_US
dc.subjectHoustonen_US
dc.subjectMetropolitanen_US
dc.subjectSuburbanen_US
dc.subjectSuburbiaen_US
dc.subjectSprawlen_US
dc.subjectEnvironmentalismen_US
dc.subjectFoxhuntingen_US
dc.subjectEquestrian sportsen_US
dc.subjectWoodlands (Tex.)en_US
dc.subjectMontgomery County (Tex.)en_US
dc.subjectLoudoun County (Va.)en_US
dc.subjectGeorge Mitchellen_US
dc.subjectUrban imperialismen_US
dc.subjectRecreationen_US
dc.subjectSan Jacinto River Authorityen_US
dc.subjectSan Jacinto Riveren_US
dc.subjectPotomac Riveren_US
dc.subjectUnited States Army Corps of Engineersen_US
dc.subjectDairy farmingen_US
dc.subjectGo Texan Dayen_US
dc.subjectFarmland preservationen_US
dc.subjectTransferable development rightsen_US
dc.subjectLand use taxationen_US
dc.subjectRural zoningen_US
dc.subjectHistorical preservationen_US
dc.subjectWaterforden_US
dc.subjectRoy Harrisen_US
dc.subjectPiney woodsen_US
dc.subjectPiedmont Environmental Council, Middleburg, Virginiaen_US
dc.titleSouthern Landscapes in the City’s Shadow: Environmental Politics and Metropolitan Growth in Texas and Virginia, 1900-1990en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentHistoryen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanitiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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