Second suburb : Levittown, Pennsylvania / edited by Dianne Harris.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harris, Dianne Suzette, editor.

Series:

Culture, politics, and the built environment

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City and town life--Pennsylvania--Levittown.

City and town life.

Suburban homes--Pennsylvania--Levittown.

Suburban homes.

Architecture and society--Pennsylvania--Levittown.

Architecture and society.

City planning--Pennsylvania--Levittown.

City planning.

Levittown (Pa.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (446 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Carved from eight square miles of Bucks County farmland northeast of Philadelphia, Levittown, Pennsylvania, is a symbol of postwar suburbia and the fulfillment of the American Dream. Begun in 1952, after the completion of an identically named community on Long Island, the second Levittown soon eclipsed its New York counterpart in scale and ambition, yet it continues to live in the shadow of its better-known sister and has received limited scholarly attention. Second Suburb uncovers the unique story of Levittown, Pennsylvania, and its significance to American social, architectural, environmental, and political history. The volume offers a fascinating profile of this planned community in two parts. The first examines Levittown from the inside, including oral histories of residents recalling how Levittown shaped their lives. One such reminiscence is by Daisy Myers, part of the first African American family to move to the community, only to become the targets of a race riot that would receive international publicity. The book also includes selections from the syndicated comic strip Zippy the Pinhead, in which Bill Griffith reflects on the angst-ridden trials of growing up in a Levittown, and an extensive photo essay of neighborhood homes, schools, churches, parks, and swimming pools, collected by Dianne Harris. The second part of the book views Levittown from the outside. Contributors consider the community's place in planning and architectural history and the Levitts' strategies for the mass production of housing. Other chapters address the class stratification of neighborhood sections through price structuring; individual attempts to personalize a home's form and space as a representation of class and identity; the builders' focus on the kitchen as the centerpiece of the home and its greatest selling point; the community's environmental and ecological legacy; racist and exclusionary sales policies; resident activism during the gas riots of 1979; and "America's lost Eden." Bringing together some of the top scholars in architectural history, American studies, and landscape studies, Second Suburb explores the surprisingly rich interplay of design, technology, and social response that marks the emergence and maturation of an exceptionally potent rendition of the American Dream.

Contents:

Introduction. A second suburb / Dianne Harris

Looking at Levittown from the inside. Revealing the history of Levittown, one voice at a time / Chad M. Kimmel

Reflections on Levittown / Daisy D. Myers

Levittown, my Levittown / Bill Griffith

Levittown in photographs / compiled by Dianne Harris

Looking at Levittown from the outside. The Levitts, mass-produced houses, and community planning in the mid-twentieth century / Richard Longstreth

Jim Crow's last stand : the struggle to integrate Levittown / Thomas J. Sugrue

"The house I live in" : architecture, modernism, and identity in Levittown / Dianne Harris

Pink kitchens for little boxes : the evolution of 1950's kitchen design in Levittown / Curtis Miner

Suburban nature, class, and environmentalism in Levittown / Cristopher Sellers

More than ticky tacky : Venturi, Scott Brown, and learning from the Levittown studio / Jessica Lautin

"No gas, my ass!" Marking the end of the postwar period in Levittown / Chad M. Kimmel

Epilogue. The suburbs of desire / Peter Fritzsche.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822962816

0822962810

9780822977827

0822977826

OCLC:

891081762