American Suburbia

David Hasberstam’s Summary of the Fifties; American Suburbia In this chapter of Hasberstam’s book, he shows us the invention of the suburb, and gives us an understanding of how housing became modernized. Hasberstam describes how a man named William Levitt changed American society. William Levitt came from the Pacific after the war and saw an immediate need for housing. He concluded quick, cheap housing was necessary because of the increasing amount of families …

…fact that they were pleased with the amount of diversity in their neighbors. One issue did reflect the problem with society at the time, black home ownership. Levitt banned blacks from the town saying that “we can solve a housing problem, or a racial problem, but not both at once.” Levitt did solve the housing problem in America by his ingenious construction of suburbs, which contributed to building techniques that are used today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**