How the Suburbs Were Segregated

Paige Glotzer’s absorbing, vividly narrated study is a major contribution to the histories of capitalism and of American cities. She shows residential segregation’s roots in longer histories of race and empire, flows of global capital, and the actions of powerful real estate developers long before the era of mass suburbanization. An essential text for understanding and grappling with the inequalities embedded within today’s metropolitan landscapes. -- Margaret O'Mara, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
This book is a remarkable achievement. Glotzer tells an eye-opening story about how real estate developers shaped a racially segregated Baltimore—and through their influence and example, the larger United States. By following the paper trail, we learn that racially prejudiced homeowners and government policymakers were not solely to blame, but rather were operating with a rulebook written by capitalist real estate interests who tied profits to racial exclusion for more than a century. -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age
In How the Suburbs Were Segregated, Glotzer offers a fresh and original history of suburban real estate development. Uncovering land ownership patterns and financing strategies in north Baltimore since the early nineteenth century, Glotzer tells the story of racial exclusion and residential segregation as it has never been told. -- Alison Isenberg, author of Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City by the Bay
Glotzer tackles a complicated subject with nuance and an attention to detail that is remarkable. While there are many highly acclaimed books on the history of housing segregation and racial exclusion in suburbia, none of these have approached the topic from the perspective of developers and capital investors, much less followed the money, in the way Glotzer has. -- Andrew W. Kahrl, author of The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South
All city planners and urban scholars can learn needed lessons from the book’s extensive documentation and extraordinarily thorough examples. -- William W. Goldsmith * Journal of Urban Affairs *