| Notes: Vintage 1985. Softcover. Unmarked. Text and color/black & white photos appear free of highlighting, underlining or writing. Small sticker on inside of back cover. Softcover book has back corner crease, shows some edge, corner and shelf wear from normal use/ age. A bit of age tanning to inside cover/cover page edges. No rips, tears or stains. 1985. First Edition, Paperback Edition. Little, Brown. A New York Graphic Society Book. ISBN 0821215868. Photos included with this listing are of the actual book you will receive. Ships quickly and with care. |
| Description:--First published in 1985, Chester Liebs' Main Street to Miracle Mile established the twentieth-century roadside landscape as a subject for serious study. Liebs traces the transformation of commercial development as it has moved from centralized main streets, out along the street car lines, to form the "miracle miles" and shopping malls of today. He also explores the evolution of roadside buildings, from supermarkets and motels to automobile showrooms and drive-in theaters. Both an historical survey and invaluable guide for reading highway landscapes, this classic work―which has inspired numerous studies, museum exhibits, and preservation efforts―is now back in print with new commentary by the author.--The past eighty years have witnessed a dramatic transformation in the American landscape; where once pastoral roads linked town centers, the countryside is now threaded with vast "Miracle Miles" of signs, businesses, and parking lots. Main Street to Miracle Mile decodes the new commercial environment wrought by the motor age and places it in a broad historical and cultural context. The book invites anyone who has ever ridden in a car to become a "windshield archeologist." Chester H. Liebs shows that a drive through almost any American city is like a trip along a time line. Each building, each turn in the road, becomes a clue to deciphering how commerce spread out from the inner city to engulf the highway. The author examines the evolution of the repertoire of building costumes, signs, and special effects designed to snare the passing motorist: from the cozy domesticity of the 1920s to the"High-Tech Look" of today:--The second half of Main Street to Miracle Mile focuses on the fascinating histories of seven commercial-building types—auto showrooms, gas stations, super-markets, miniature golf courses, drive-in theaters, motels, and restaurants-exploring everything from the great automobile sales palaces of the 1920s to the demise of the drive-in theater.Main Street to Miracle Mile is a pioneering study; it reveals commercial architecture to be a barometer of the American psyche-showing us where we are, how we arrived here, and what we will leave as our legacy to the landscape.CHESTER H. LIEs is an author, educator, photographer, and visual historian. In 1975 he founded, and has since directed, the University of Vermont's nationally acclaimed Historic Preservation Program. He has taught at Boston University and Columbia University and has lectured nationwide. Professor Liebs also helped organize and has served as president of both the Society for Industrial Archeology and the Society for Commercial Archeology. |