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“First They Built The Roads”: The Automobile Agent In Arcade Fire’S The Suburbs, Kimberly Prijatel

English Seminar Capstone Research Papers

Urban historian Dr. Kenneth Jackson classifies the suburbs “the quintessential physical achievement of the United States,” an achievement “perhaps more representative of [US] culture than big cars, tall buildings, or professional football” (Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States 4). As of 2012, over half of Americans live in the suburbs, and approximately 169 thousand of the United State’s 3.79 million square miles is populated by suburban development (6). An environment so expansive and primary to American culture and space indicates its towering significance in cultural discourse. But the suburbs could not exist were it not for the …