Postwar Suburbia
Current Events & Pop Culture
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching Postwar Suburbia Teacher Pass
Teaching Postwar Suburbia Teacher Pass includes:
- Assignments & Activities
- Reading Quizzes
- Current Events & Pop Culture articles
- Discussion & Essay Questions
- Challenges & Opportunities
- Related Readings in Literature & History
Sample of Current Events & Pop Culture
Levittown Goes Under
An NPR article from February 2008 reports on the effects of Levitt and Son's recent declaration of bankruptcy, and takes a brief look at the history of Levittown, New York. The website includes a number of photos of Levittown in the late 1940s.
"Levittown was the first mass-produced American suburb — and is widely regarded as the archetype for post-war suburbia.
Levitt and Sons built the planned community on farmland on Long Island in Nassau County, N.Y., beginning in the late 1940s. The company adopted assembly-line methods aimed at producing fast, cheap housing: By the summer of 1948, it was turning out 30 houses a day. Other 'Levittowns' followed — in Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Although today the name "Levittown" conjures images of cookie-cutter homogeneity, many of the homes in the original Long Island community have been expanded and redesigned beyond recognition."