“Studying the suburbs is not new, but despite venturing down a semi-beaten path, Dickinson has written an intriguing study of the peripheries. . . . The suburbs often take a backseat to cities, despite their interrelatedness, and Dickinson astutely puts the suburbs back in the forefront. The references are impressive. Highly recommended.”
—CHOICE
"For a richly current sense of today's suburbs caught in spirals of economic doubt and leaning outward to capture locality amid the increasingly global crush of contradictory forces, Greg Dickinson's newest work provides essential reading."
—Rhetoric and Public Affairs
“Suburban Dreams represents an original contribution to rhetorical studies. It cements Dickinson’s existing reputation as one of the foremost authorities in rhetorical studies on the rhetoric of space, place, and consumer culture.”
—Bradford Vivian, author of Public Forgetting: The Rhetoric and Politics of Beginning Again and Being Made Strange: Rhetoric Beyond Representation
“Greg Dickinson has for some time been on the leading edge of research into the communicative and rhetorical dimensions of space and place. This book extends that important program of research by considering American suburbia, a long-standing target of scorn and dismissal. Dickinson skillfully analyzes how suburbia serves as a locus of desire, motivation, and affiliation by its detractorsHe is able to place the suburb at or near the center of American popular culture, and his work will demand fresh attention to that space/place. This book will be of interest to scholars in rhetoric, communication studies, geography, American studies, architecture, and farflung students of the city.”
—Barry S. Brummett, author of Rhetoric in Popular Culture, Techniques of Close Reading, and Rhetorical Homologies: Form, Culture, Experience