Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding LevittownMuch has been written about the housing policies of the Depression and the Postwar period. Much less has been written of the houses built as a result of these policies, or the lives of the families who lived in them. Using the houses of Levittown, Long Island, as cultural artifacts, this book examines the relationship between the government-sponsored, mass-produced housing built after World War II, the families who lived in it, and the society that fostered it. Beginning with the basic four-room, slab-based Cape Cods and Ranches, Levittown homeowners invested time and effort, barter and money in the expansion and redesign of their houses. The author shows how this gradual process has altered the socioeconomic nature of the community as well, bringing Levittown fully into the mainstream of middle-class America. This book works on several levels. For planners, it offers a reassessment of the housing policies of the 1940s and '50s, suggesting that important lessons remain to be learned from the Levittown experience. For historians, it offers new insights into the nature of the suburbanization process that followed World War II. And for those who wish to understand the subtle workings of their own domestic space within their lives, it offers food for speculation. |
Contents
CONSTRUCTION | 21 |
THE PLAN IN THE PLANNED COMMUNITY | 35 |
HOUSES FIT FOR HEROES | 59 |
THE HOUSE BECOMES A HOME | 89 |
EXPANDING THE AMERICAN DREAM | 103 |
A CLOSER LOOK | 119 |
MYTHS AND MEANINGS | 138 |
THE POLITICS OF HOUSE AND HOME | 154 |
Other editions - View all
Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown Barbara M. Kelly Limited preview - 1993 |
Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown Barbara M. Kelly No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Levitt American Dream American middle class Architecture attic bathroom builders building built Cape Cod changes Colmer Congress construction critics cultural dining room Dobriner Dolores Hayden domestic dwellings economic elements environment floor plans Foundation Series garage Garden City Hempstead homeowners household houses of Levittown housing policies housing programs housing shortage income kitchen Levitt & Sons Levitt and Sons Levitt houses Levittown Levittown Eagle Levittown houses Levittown residents Levittown Tribune Liell living room Long Island lower-income magazine Manhasset master bedroom ment middle middle-class Midwest City moved myth Nassau County needs Newsday original percent planned community political postwar housing postwar suburbs prewar ranch models rear redesign remodeling renovations rent rental housing rental units residential single-family social space spatial subdivision suburbs Suburbia television tenants Thousand Lanes tion town traditional urban values veterans wall William Levitt women workers York young