ABSTRACT
A number of observers, usually highbrow Europeans or Americans who live and work in the central city, account for the massive amount of sprawl in the United States by claiming that it is the result of national character traits. American cities are so different from European cities, they say, because Americans are at heart anti-urban, attached to unfettered individualism, low-density living, and automobile usage. But . . . the history of urban decentralization seems to suggest that many of the supposed differences in American and European cities and suburbs are less the result of inherent differences in these societies than a matter of timing. Cities on both continents are, if anything, converging when it comes to space used per capita, automobile ownership, or other similar measures. All of this casts considerable doubt on the theory that Americans are uniquely anti-urban.
