The Promise of the Suburbs

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the history of the American dream of home ownership that was realized with the advent of Levittown, or small, suburban planned communities. The paper discusses how these suburban communities allowed individuals to have a sense of personal space, be away from their extended families and nearby neighbors and escape the grime, enforced ethnicity or closed nature of many urban communities. The paper highlights that Americans' aspirations to shape their lives by changing their physical environment reveals much about the American subconscious.

From the Paper:

"To understand the power of the suburban ideal upon the modern American consciousness it is necessary to go far back in American history, even before the ideal of "Leave it to Beaver" became the benchmark of wholesomeness in the American cultural mindset. The photographs of Jacob Riis of tenement life during the turn of the 20th century are a powerful testimony to the cramped, dehumanized conditions of individuals living in urban locations, the result of rapid urbanization and a rapid rise in immigration. Even in the 19th century, as America was only beginning to industrialize, the ideal of the suburban homesteader proclaimed that finding one's own patch of land, rather than renting and dwelling in close proximity to other people in a rented space was the only true, right way to live."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Franz, Douglas & Catherine Collins. Celebration, U.S.A. Living in Disney's Brave New Town. Henry Holt and Company, 1999. Chapter 1 available 19 May 2007 at http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/frantz-celebration.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
• Hales, Peter Bacon. "Building Levittown: A Rudimentary Primer. The University of Illinois. 2007. 19 may 2007. http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

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