Politics, Economics and other Stuff

This Year's Bancroft Prizes

via Legal History Blog:

Winners of this year's Bancroft Prize for exceptional merit in the fields of American history, biography and diplomacy are Thomas G. Andrews for Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press); Drew Gilpin Faust for This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf); and Pekka Hämäläinen for The Comanche Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press).

I'd noticed the Gilpin Faust book -- who could not, given her visibility and the marketing, and the popular appear of the topic, so I'm a bit reluctant to even crack This Republic of Suffering -- and the Hämäläinen book, but I'd totally missed the Andrews book, which is more up my alley. NPR has an interview with Andrews. Another part of the context for the US entering WWI? 

Zoning and Building Codes

Andrew Samwick writes:

Banana: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.  My reading rampage continues with Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dreamby Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. This excerpt from the introduction should whet your appetite:

The problem is that one cannot easily build Charleston anymore, because it is against the law.  Similarly, Boston's Beacon Hill, Nantucket, Santa Fe, Carmel -- all of these well-known places, many of which have become tourist destinations, exist in direct violation of current zoning ordinances.  Even the classic American main street, with its mixed-use buildings right up against the sidewalk, is now illegal in most municipalities.  Somewhere along the way, through a series of small and well-intentioned steps, traditional towns became a crime in America.  At the same time, one of the largest segments of the economy, the homebuilding industry, developed a comprehensive system of land development practices based on sprawl, practices that have become so ingrained as to be second nature.  It is these practices, and the laws that encourage them, which must be overcome if good growth is to become a viable alternative.

It would be nice to know more:first, are the claims above actually true?  If yes, how did this situation arise?  Why did it arise?  What perpetuates it?  What would optimal zoning and building codes look like?  How could we get there, realistically speaking?