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How a Cornfield Became New DalevilleBuilding a town from scratch.

By Witold RybczynskiPosted Wednesday, April 18, 2007, at 12:42 PM ET

Click to view a slide show.In his new book Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville, Witold Rybczynski follows the design, construction, and marketing of a new residential subdivision over the course of several years. In the process, he explains how modern homes and communities are built. In Monday's excerpt, the first of three, Rybczynski examined why we live in houses. Yesterday's excerpt explained how Americans fell in and out of love with the ranch house. Click here to read a slide-show essay that follows the evolution of New Daleville step by step, from cornfield to subdivision.

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Witold Rybczynski is Slate's architecture critic. His latest book is My Two Polish Grandfathers: And Other Essays on the Imaginative Life.
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