Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States

Some social revolutions slam into our consciousness with banner headlines and others creep in insidiously as a series of small surprises. Gated communities have been around since the early 1980s and definitely belong to the latter category. Despite the dramatic title, college professor Blakely and doctoral student Snyder have written a thoughtful, low-key book that mirrors the quiet but important trend toward fenced neighborhoods. ""The real issue,"" they write, ""is not about the actual gates and walls, but why so many feel they need them."" They collected material directly and simply by going to communities and talking to residents, and by mail surveys of homeowner associations. With three million households and about eight million people currently barricaded, a variety of approaches to gated living were available for study, though the reasons residents chose them always centered around fear of crime and attempts to produce economic and physical security. Early chapters trace the evolution and history of the phenomenon, and later discussion presents homeowners' defense of secession and exclusion of others from their economic and social privilege. The authors have a clear and consistent democratic viewpoint, however, and end with rational, realistic suggestions for building better communities without erecting fortresses. The subject may lack the glamour of more dramatic and trendy social problems, but the book offers a calm and reasoned tone for a revolutionary tendency and deserves a wide audience. (Oct.)