Meet Me by the Fountain by Alexandra Lange. So, I heard Lange on two different podcasts talking about the history and significance of shopping malls and was immediately captivated by her take on the subject, which deftly combines some shared nostalgia, clear explanations of design features and trends, social analysis, and a critique of capitalism. Her book covers the territory in great detail; her exuberant energy gets lost in a few litanies of which malls were built in which years by which design firms, but when she is talking about the capitalist idealism of the fifties, the racism embedded in suburban development, the attempts to recreate the organic energy of real downtown, or the mall as both a reflection and shaper of cultural trends, she provides thorough, thoughtful, and cogent critique. Love 'em or hate 'em, malls have been and continue to be a big part of the American lifescape, and Lange helps us to understand the hows and whys.
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