Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design: Cultural Process and Environmental Response by Kingston Wm. Heath (review)

border. How have Hispanics, both longtime residents and newcomers, shaped the border state version of the American dream? Turning things around, what tastes have Mexicans and other Latin American migrants learned from Americans, reexported to their home communities, and helped finance through remittances? Frustratingly, Herzog does not address such issues. We should be sympathetic to the sort of dilemma that Herzog faces. If we are to make sense of broad regional and, indeed, global trends we must rely on the work of others. The challenge, then, is how to make our claims plausible and our generalizations accurate. Part of the answer must surely be to acknowledge the gaps and problems, to consider carefully whether the particular examples we are using are in fact typical, to entertain and indeed to seek out counterclaims. Herzog does not do this. The problem is not Herzog’s reliance on secondary sources but the way he uses them—with more than just a hint of confirmation bias. Global Suburbs usefully draws our attention to the presence of U.S.style suburbs across the Americas, but it may serve to reinforce the parochialism that it appears to challenge.