A Sort of Utopia: Scarsdale, 1891-1981

The author, who wrote this book as part of her doctoral thesis, has thouroughly researched the development of Scarsdale New York. This is an unusual, and valuable book which charts the turn of the century factors such as growth of transportation systems, emergence of a professional upper-middle class, real estate developers displacing farm land, etc. which led to the emergence of Scarsdale, and many other suburbs in the US, as a preferred residential area. It then chronicles the factors which have maintained Scarsdale as a desirable place to live for over a century. Professor O'Conner's research was thourough and provides a wonderful context to understand the development of Scarsdale. Perhaps because of its research orientation, the book sometimes does not provide potentailly interesting anecdotal information such as how the various Scarsdale neighborhoods (e.g., Fox Meadow, Greenacres, etc.) were named. On balance, this is a valuable book which would be of interest to residents of Scarsdale, people interested in the development of suburbs in the US, and people interested in social history.