Jonathan Levine, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, author of Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land Use:
This very important book represents a significant contribution to the literature on U.S. land-use regulatory practices. The comparative framework of Zoned in the USA is distinctive. It allows Sonia Hirt to identify the uniqueness of U.S. zoning in its origins, its institutional arrangement, and its physical outcome. I know of no other work that as insightfully compares U.S. practices to the international experience. Hirt shows that the U.S. approach to land-use regulation represents a historically conditioned and highly consequential set of policy decisions that constitute a fundamental break with processes of urbanization globally and throughout history.
Christopher Silver, Dean and Professor, College of Design, Construction, and Planning, University of Florida, author of Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century:
Sonia Hirt contends that America's approach to land-use control, which puts such a premium on insulating single-family homes from all other uses, is unique from most other places in the western world. American exceptionalism is effectively demonstrated in this comparative analysis. Hirt is careful not to overly judge the American system and suggests a paradox regarding our demonstrated proclivity to value individualism (as symbolized by the single-family detached house) and yet support a land-use system that so rigidly regulates how we shape our human settlements. Her sources are rich, and her access to non-U.S. sources is extremely impressive.
Josh Stephens:
Why can a German get his taxes done by walking downstairs while I, in a perfectly dense neighborhood in Los Angeles, need to get in my car to find a konditorei? This is, essentially, the question Sonja Hirt asks in Zoned in the USA, a surprisingly rousing analysis and history of American zoning laws. It takes an outsider like Hirt—who is Bulgarian and therefore familiar with both European cities and governmental power—to recognize the stark differences between the control of land in American cities and that in their counterparts elsewhere in the developed world. A professor of planning at Virginia Tech, Hirt positions herself as the Alexis de Toqueville of planning, equally baffled and fascinated by the odd world that Americans have built.
Jerome Hodos:
This kind of comparative research deserves more support and encouragement. Although it is difficult to do, it holds out the promise of a richer analysis of the historical development of institutions—particularly, as in this case, when cross-national policy transfer is an explicit part of the history.
Richard Walker:
This is an excellent book and an impeccable introduction to American zoning for anyone interested in US city planning and urban geography. In one sense, it is a primer on US zoning theory and practice: it provides all the basic elements and history in a mercifully succinct manner in under two hundred pages. This would bean ideal book to give to a student or colleague just cutting hisorher teeth in urban studies. Yet, at the same time, Sonia Hirt makes some original contributions to the field by clearly placing American practices in international and historical perspective. The book worked for me on both levels. I have been reading US books on urban history and geography for nearly fifty years, starting with postwar studies of zoning by the likes of John Delaphons, Stephen Toll, and Richard Babcock, and histories of planning and urban development by such authorities as Peter Hall, Mel Scott, and Sam Bass Warner; I even reached back to the pioneers of American urban studies like Robert Hurd, Herbert Swan, and Louis Mumford. It was a pleasure to encounter them again here and be reminded of the twists and turns of citymaking in the United States. It was even more of a delight to be shown that history with such remarkable clarity and in a new light.
Ulf Zimmermann:
Hirt has given us a thorough history of what we have been doing and a fine description of what we can learn from other countries. Nicely illustrative tables/figures and 'textboxes' make it well suitable for upper-division and graduate students.
[Hirt] provides a succinct overview of the history of zoning in the US. She compares zoning in the US to five European countries—England, France, Sweden, Germany, and Russia—to highlight its distinctiveness. The story of American zoning reveals its origins in the early-20th century, fashioned to maintain property values and protect Americans' investments in their homes. The book tells the story of how local, state, and federal governments have contributed to the use of zoning to preserve the single-family detached home, connecting zoning to other policies, such as transportation and home loan financing. This is a terrific book for collections on housing, land use, zoning, and law.
