The great 18th century critic & writer, Samuel Johnson, said that a man will devour half a library to write a book. I devour a whole book in order to write one single radio column. People see this retired old man underline passages in books and they wonder why. After all, I am no longer a student. I don’t need to underline. I do, however, underline in order to remember & I underline in order to be able to go back to passages that I can then quote for all of you.
A book I underlined extensively is by a writer I have pointed out to all of you before. He has an odd name -- Witold Rybccynski -- but he is a wonderful writer and I have read almost everything he’s written.
Waiting for the Weekend is a book about weekends, how they came to be, what different societies do on weekends. I cannot summarize his findings, he wanders all over the place, but I love his wanderings, his meanderings, his seeming digressions.
Here are a few of his digressions: “In 1914, as part of the war effort, British industry introduced Sunday work, as well as longer hours and overtime. The result was not as had been hoped, greater production, but the opposite: reduced efficiency...disciplinary difficulties, labor disturbances, and, most surprisingly, an actual drop in overall output.” When she was raising her children & working part time, my wife felt she was as productive, if not more productive, than when she worked full time. My wife has always maintained that longer hours reduce productivity. This example bears her out.
Ribczynski points to a trend away from longer weekends, away from even more leisure time: “If the average person wanted to indulge in expensive recreations such as skiing or sailing...it would be necessary to work more--to trade his or her free time for overtime or a second job....most people chose spending over more free time.” Americans chose spending over more free time.
In western society, America is the country with the longest school vacations & the shortest work vacations. Most American jobs offer only two weeks of vacation. Many countries in Europe offer their workers five weeks of vacation a year. Rybczynski quotes a U.S. News & World statistic: In America about 1.3 billion hours of potential leisure time are exchanged for leisure wear.
Rybczynski quotes G.K. Chesterton who maintained that the truest form of leisure was the freedom to do nothing. Americans don’t want to “do nothing.” Or as Rybczynski says “People used to play tennis, now they work on their backhand.”
Read Witold Rybczynski’s book Waiting for the Weekend. Read anything Rybczynski writes. All his books are full of wonderful digressions, fascinating information.
Americans love privacy. We love our large, beautiful homes. As someone pointed out recently, American families are getting smaller, but American houses are getting larger.
Witold Rybczynski, a wonderful Canadian writer who writes about cities and houses pointed out that “the development of communities composed of freestanding houses surrounded by gardens was entirely American. Before 1840, American cities and towns followed the European model: attached, or row, houses were built side by side, on narrow lots, facing the street.” You would have to go to Baltimore, or New York City, or San Francisco to see such row houses--houses that share walls, which of course saves on heating bills, but gives one less privacy. Americans love privacy.
Rybczynski also points out that “almost three quarters of present existing U.S. houses were built after 1940...and the overwhelming majority followed the same model: single houses for single families.” Just think of it: three quarters of the houses that exist in America -- three out of every four -- were built since 1940, and almost all of those, which were built after 1940, were free standing houses, not row houses, and they were built for single families.
But more and more of those houses aren’t even inhabited by single families. More and more the houses are inhabited by single people--one lonely person in a big house. When Rybczynski’s book came out, in 1992, “single person households” accounted “for almost a quarter of the total.” Or one out of four houses now houses just one person.
I live alone and I live in a house that most Americans would consider a small house--but I’ll never forget the Chinese student who once came into my house. She asked, “Do you live here alone?” I said yes. She said three Chinese families would live in a house this size in China. She didn’t say three Chinese people--she said three Chinese families!
Why am I throwing all these statistics at you, and I am about to throw some more statistics at you: “The 1990 census showed that 46.2 per cent of the U.S. population lived in metropolitan areas outside central cities -- that is in suburbs. Almost all city growth now takes place in suburbs, not in central cities...Suburbia has become the quintessential physical achievement of the United States.”
I am throwing all these statistics at you because Witold Rybczynski is a fascinating writer who has these statistics at his fingertips. You should read any book you see that has been written by him--and he has written quite a few books: Home, Waiting for The Weekend, Looking Around, are just a few of the books he wrote. He has wonderful insights into the way we live, and almost all his books consist of short essays--easy reading that is also informative.
I am also citing all these statistics because Traverse City is in the midst of a big controversy: should we limit the height of buildings in town: won’t the alternative to high buildings mean more urban sprawl.
It is not an either or questions -- one could build many low rise buildings, one could build row houses in town -- but the whole question is difficult because single family homes are what we Americans love & Suburbia is the quintessential achievement of the United States.
In any case, read Witold Rybczynski’s books. He will entertain you; he will educate you. He will make you understand the country you live in.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein