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Crystal, Minnesota And The American Suburb, Matthew Ottinger

Culminating Projects in History

This thesis covers the development of the American suburb with special attention paid to Crystal, Minnesota as a case study. With sporadic primary sources, a simple chronological telling of Crystal's history was a difficult task to undertake. That being the case, a study of how the average American suburb changed from a community on the fringe of a metropolitan area to a city of its own are discussed within this thesis.

The topics that continually presented themselves during research ranged from how people have changed the land to how one defines community. Suburban growth in the form of sprawl, development, …