Prepared for Professor Liz Rohan and the Language, Culture, and the Arts Honors Program.
Dear UofM Students-
Thanks again for your time. It was nice to have an opportunity to speak with you about the book.
Assuming you read at the average speed for non-fiction (~240 words/minute), it would take you under 6 hours to read the entire book. Mindful that this book is only one of several you’re looking at in the course, I wanted to make it possible for you to engage with parts of the book (and related essays on Good Human Habitat) in a way that fits the course. The intent here is to help you develop your language of place.
Below, you’ll find key questions I’m inherently asking, most related to your course. Beneath each question, I point you to related chapters in the book and stand-alone essays here on Good Human Habitat.
You can download the entire book as a PDF and listen to Part I of the book. Currently, a couple dozen people have shared their perspectives on the writing. Feel free to add your perspective as well.
Contact me or Professor Rohan with questions or to provide any critical feedback (positive or negative). I’m happy to set up a group or one-on-one webinar to discuss your ideas relevant to the writing. I’m reachable at patrick@goodhumanhabitat.org.
The expectation is not for you to accept everything as truth. The book reflects my search for the “right place” to live, which is a safe, vibrant, multi-generational, walkable community in which it’s possible to raise a family. This is not the life everyone wishes to lead, and I encourage skepticism, which can produce a more nuanced view of the confusing, often absurd world we inhabit.
The questions below relate to the book’s overall purpose, which is to tell the story of how an unresolved racial past and urban sprawl intertwine and make it difficult for middle-class Americans to live and raise children in affordable, walkable, urban environments.
Note: The average chapter length is about 1750 words, which is about the length of a short magazine article. The essays are a bit longer and you’ll find the estimated reading time at the top of each article. |
How do I describe healthy communities (a.k.a., “Home”)?
- Chapter 3 (A Definition for Home and Why it Matters)
- Chapter 18 (Describing Good Human Habitat by Way of Example)
- Chapter 19 (The Advantages of the Human Scale)
- Essay – A 4-Part Definition for Quality of Life and Why it Matters
- Essay – The Bountiful Benefits of the Human Scale
Why might it be challenging to find “home” in America?
- Chapter 4 (American Cities as Receptacles of Trauma)
- Chapter 13 (From Operettas to Molotov Cocktails)
- Chapter 33 (Life in a Receptacle of Trauma)
- Chapter 40 (The Short-Lived Illusion of Shared Purpose)
- Chapter 47 (The War the Killed Healing)
- Essay – Two sets of maps explain why so few middle-class parents raise children in American cities.
- Essay – How Urban Sprawl and Slavery’s Legacy Intertwine to Undermine Quality of Life
How do my family connections to Toledo and Philadelphia relate to my difficulty finding home in America?
- Chapter 10 (Family Connections to Place, War, and Trauma)
- Chapter 11 (We Have Toledo They Have Wolfsburg)
- Chapter 12 (Might Have Been My Bedford Falls)
- Chapter 15 (Maps that Charted the Downfall)
- Chapter 44 (All the Barbwire Fence Entailed)
- Essay – My Patriotic Education
What is the relevance of my parents’ inability to move beyond their trauma to the unresolved trauma of millions of Black Americans?
- Chapter 4 (American Cities Serve as Receptacles of Trauma)
- Chapter 10 (Family Connections to Place, War, and Trauma)
- Chapter 33 (Life in a Receptacle of Trauma)
- Chapter 34 (The Personal Responsibility Myth versus Trauma Reality)
In terms of consequences, how does Lewis Cass’s role in expanding slavery shape relate to my life and the lives of the two other 4-year-olds highlighted during the July 1967 riots in Detroit and Toledo?
- Chapter 6 (Greater Levels of Freedom Outside America)
- Chapter 8 (Core Value Shaped During the Slaveholding Republic)
- Chapter 13 (From Operettas to Molotov Cocktails)
- Chapter 14 (Blind to Consequences, Blind to their Origins)
- Essay – My Patriotic Education
How have government decisions made it more difficult to find vibrant, walkable, healthy, urban communities in America?
- Chapter 15 (Maps That Charted the Downfall)
- Chapter 20 (Bad Human Habitat’s DNA: Single-Use Zoning)
- Chapter 21 (Racial Hatred Births the Single-Family Zone)
- Chapter 22 (How and Why the Government Declared War on Walking)
- Essay – Racial Contempt Births Single-Family Zoning
What steps do local governments need to take to overcome the perpetual rule of urban sprawl to build healthy communities?
- Chapter 23 (Speak of Design Not Density)
- Chapter 24 (Why Local Governments Still Create Bad Human Habitat)
- Chapter 26 (Toledo’s Potential)
- Essay – The Rule of Perpetual Urban Sprawl and Its Exceptions
- Essay – Four Achievements Required to Break the Rule of Perpetual Urban Sprawl