Here is my web review proposal:
For my web review essay I propose to review websites that cover the history of suburbanization, or, more specifically, urban sprawl. In preliminary searches I found that the history of urban sprawl is inadequately represented on the web. Most websites that currently deal with the topic are contemporary and activist-oriented, with little or no appreciable history. Nevertheless, I found several websites, modest as they are, that offer a history of sprawl as a backdrop for contemporary debate. All are local, and some may say parochial, interpretations, but they serve to characterize the paucity of historical resources about sprawl that the web has to offer. The websites are as follows:
• Sprawl in the Lehigh River Watershed
• The History Of Urban Sprawl, Forest Park, Ohio
• Online Sprawl Slide Show, The League of Women Voters of Buffalo/Niagara
• The History of Suburban Sprawl in Edmonton, Sierra Club
In my searches I also came across the National Building Museum's online exhibit on urban sprawl. The exhibit, which is actually a series of related exhibits, provides an exhaustive look into the history of sprawl, as well as a look into its future. Unfortunately the online portion of the exhibit is merely a script of the physical exhibition, but in its historical coverage of sprawl it is unmatched on the web. The website is as follows:
• Smart Growth and Choices for Change
For my detailed proposal for a digital history project I plan on developing a website dedicated to the history of urban sprawl. After scouring the Internet for similar websites, it seems that it would be a first of its kind.