Reviews

In Defense of Housing: The Politics of Crisis by Peter Marcuse, David Madden

joeh's review against another edition

4.0

Marcuse provides an engaging critique of the modern housing system, particularly highlighting what he views as the origins of our current housing crisis. I found his assertion that housing has morphed from a historically-considered personal/familial right to an overly exploited commodity under the American (and European) capitalist regime of the past 300 years to be particularly interesting. He also does an excellent job explicating on the history of various housing-related movements in New York City. At some points I wished he would go into a bit more detail in terms of providing additional sources to support his historical critique, but this doesn't detract that much from his argument.

Overall it's a pretty engrossing and incredibly relevant book. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in the Housing issue.