{"product_id":"meet-me-by-the-fountain-an-inside-history-of-the-mall-paperback","title":"Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAlexandra Lange\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the Porchlight Business Book Awards \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A smart and accessible cultural history.\"-\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA portrait--by turns celebratory, skeptical, and surprisingly moving--of one of America's most iconic institutions, from an author who \"might be the most influential design critic writing now\" (LARB).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFew places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as malls. Since their birth in the 1950s, they have loomed large as temples of commerce, the agora of the suburbs. In their prime, they proved a powerful draw for creative thinkers such as Joan Didion, Ray Bradbury, and George Romero, who understood the mall's appeal as both critics and consumers. Yet today, amid the aftershocks of financial crises and a global pandemic, as well as the rise of online retail, the dystopian husk of an abandoned shopping center has become one of our era's defining images. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn her acclaimed \u003ci\u003eThe Design of Childhood\u003c\/i\u003e, Alexandra Lange uncovered the histories of toys, classrooms, and playgrounds. She now turns her sharp eye to another subject we only \u003ci\u003ethink\u003c\/i\u003e we know. She chronicles postwar architects' and merchants' invention of the mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. In Lange's perceptive account, the mall becomes newly strange and rich with contradiction: Malls are environments of both freedom and exclusion--of consumerism, but also of community. \u003ci\u003eMeet Me by the Fountain\u003c\/i\u003e is a highly entertaining and evocative promenade through the mall's rise, fall, and ongoing reinvention, for readers of any generation.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexandra Lange\u003c\/b\u003e is an architecture critic and the author of four previous books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Design of Childhood\u003c\/i\u003e. Her writing has also appeared in publications such as the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eT Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eCityLab\u003c\/i\u003e, and she was previously the architecture critic for Curbed. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and has taught design criticism there and at the School of Visual Arts. She lives in Brooklyn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 8.2 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 05, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51764526285088,"sku":"9781639732050","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/4e14c8ade1f5df44209179cfbb2ed1fe.webp?v=1780251014","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/meet-me-by-the-fountain-an-inside-history-of-the-mall-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}