September 2023 through April 2024
Lecture Series: SUBURBIA – The American Dream?
For this, our sixth annual lecture series, we explore the concept of place and, in particular, the suburbs. Our Education Committee has assembled a world class faculty who will probe the societal and technological changes during the 19th and 20th centuries that revolutionized where and how Americans lived, and how the United States became what our lead speaker calls “the world’s first suburban nation.” Most of our speakers will be live at the Hingham Heritage Museum and all programs will be offered via ZOOM webinar as well. We look forward to welcoming you all, in person or online, when this series commences on September 17th.
Thank you again for your support of the Hingham Historical Society with the purchase of a lecture series subscription.
Deirdre Anderson
Executive Director
Jim Taylor
President
9.17.2023
The World’s First “Suburban Nation”
Kenneth Jackson (with Eileen McIntyre)
11.12.2023
Francesca Ammon
12.03.2023
James O’Connell
01.21.2024
The Suburbanization of Hingham
Gordon Carr
02.18.2024
Retrofitting Suburbia
Ellen Dunham-Jones
04.07.2024
Lawrence Levy
04.28.2024
Suburbia Lecture Series Wrap Up Discussion
Eileen McIntyre and Ruth Gilbert Whitner
Welcome to “Suburbia: The American Dream?”
Most Americans today live in suburbs, but why? And how did suburbs get built the way that they did? These and other questions led the Society’s volunteer Education Committee to begin exploring the history of American suburbs as a potential series late last year. We consulted early on with Dolores Hayden, Professor Emerita at Yale, and the author of “Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth.’’ We discovered that there was a considerable body of academic research on the topic. Then based on a series of Zoom conversations with professors and experts across the country, we crafted the series that begins in September.
“Suburbia: The American Dream?” is a seven-program series that we expect will offer fresh understanding about the “rhyme and reason” of the America we live in today. Some programs will probe opportunities to improve on the suburban model of the past.
Eileen McIntyre
Chair, Education Committee