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The Geographical Review April 1998, Vol. 88 (2), pp. 259-274 WILLIAM WHYTE, OPEN SPACE, AND ENVIRONMENTALACTIVISM ADAM W. ROME ABSTRACT: In the late 1950s and early 1960s a variety of Americans beganto protest the loss of open space to suburban sprawl. The criticsof sprawl--William Whyte, most notably--argued that open spacehad great aesthetic, social, and ecological value. To preserveopen space, activists lobbied for the acquisition of public landand touted land-saving forms of development. Although both effortsbrought important successes, both proved inadequate. Even so,the open-space debate had enduring consequences: It shaped laterefforts to force builders to meet new environmental obligations,and it played a key role in the evolution of the environmentalmovement. Keywords: environmentalism, suburbs, urban planning DR. ROME is an assistant professor of history and geography at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.