Traces development of U.S. cities through the colonial town, market place town, radial center, fringe city, and the multicentered metropolis. Notes the 1970 census showed the United States as a suburban nation. Examines the housing patterns of urban cities that continue to lose population. (NL)

Reviews suburbanization of United States, created by assembly line construction, wartime housing shortages, and federal mortgage subsidies. States earlier scholars viewed suburban migration as a solution to urban overcrowding, whereas later scholars examined suburbs as symbolic of U.S. values and conformity, insulated from problems of U.S. cities.…