Book excerpt: American Housing Production, 1880-2000 presents a concise history of nonfarm housing production, progress, and policy in the United States. This century has been divided into a 14-part chronological structure with irregular time intervals, in contrast to conventional decade time periods. This arrangement is intended to reflect more fully the economic and political forces causing short run movements in housing output. This book treats housing production within a broad economic, demographic, and political context. Special relative measures of housing production, mortgage debt, and household formation have been developed to provide historical perspective over the period covered. Strong emphasis is placed on the growth and improved quality of the housing stock and on the evolution of community facilities essential to safe and sanitary housing, and of a mortgage credit system capable of supporting rising levels of production and home ownership. It analyzes the uneven results of Federal housing legislation, including the effort to assure equal access for all citizens to housing and mortgage markets, and the unfortunate experience of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A look ahead to future prospects for housing production concludes the book.