"Suburban Life"- what are they? when and why did they evolve? what is suburbia? how are suburban life and values different from urban life and values?
I picked the topic
"Suburban Life" because I was intrigued by the questions after the
prompt. These were questions I had never thought about and now I wanted an
answer. I did not know what a suburb was, much less "suburbia" and how it all
came about had to be interesting. So, a suburb is "an area or town located
at the edge of an urban city" (buisnessdictionary.com). Suburbs were
emerging in the 19th century, post World War II, and some Americans had
accumulated many negative connotations with suburbia. Like, the ways the people in the
suburbs were and are living, and how they could not imagine obtaining a "Suburban
Life". Other Americans had a different perspective on "Suburban
Life" and enjoyed the feelings they got from being within the
suburbs.
In 1970, the census
officially announced that America had suburban regions. This meant that the
core cities began to lose population and see the steady decline of their
economy. The growth of the suburbs challenged many aspects of the city life. It
destroyed the idea of a downtown because suburbs were creating new highways,
which made it possible for farmers to buy up farmland and develop it into new
subdivisions. The downtown, post World War I, was the inner core of the city.
It was the center for Industries, production, and distribution. The downtown
was greatly populated because there was a surplus of large families and they
were all living in proximity of their work. Post World War II the city and the
countryside were finally linked by highways. This is what made suburbs
possible. I would have never guessed that highways were the cause of suburbs. It is
quite logical and obvious, yet it never occurred to me that this is the reason why suburbs
came about and this created more interest for me with the topic. Another thing that
made suburbs possible was the use of the car.
The car also plays a
major role in shaping the suburban lifestyle and taking away the significance
of the city home life. This is an aspect I never expected to find while
researching the suburbs. I never knew that the car had such a huge impact on
American civilization. Because of the car, Americans were now able to drive to
work in the city and still have the peaceful home. The car not only changed the
way people thought of the city, but it changed the view of the typical home.
Homes in the suburbs now required a garage, like the requirement of a kitchen,
and they had driveways or as some like to describe it, "an extension of
the street" or "the entrance and exit ramp to domestic life"
(autolifel.umd.umich.edu). Industries and shopping centers were being relocated
because they now had a place to build larger industries and larger shopping
areas. The person who jumpstarted suburbs was William Levitt.
The first person to
develop a suburb was William Levitt, who created Levittown in the 1940s. He was
using the most up to date methods of architecture to build these houses in
Levittown. Mr. Levitt wanted to, "capitalize on affordable housing for the
returning GI's" (tigger.uic.edu) or soldiers coming back form the war.
Levitt was able to do this by figuring out how to mass-produce things. Each
home looked slightly different on the outside but the floor plan in each one
was the exact same. William had a purpose for creating these houses and really
succeeded in his goals. He not only made the houses and a new town, but he made
people want to come and live there. I would have never known that William
Levitt existed if I had not done this research topic. He is an inspirational
man who saw what he wanted and went after it. He made "Suburban Life"
obtainable and desirable by most. Levitt created a sense of community, which is
what most Americans were looking for after World War II, and especially what
most GI's were looking for. Levitt only kick started the growth of the
suburbs.
In the early 1930s Los
Angeles's downtown housed 75% of the population, and in the 1960s it only
housed 8%. (autolifel.umd.umich.edu) I found this is a dramatic shift in the
distribution of people in thirty years. This is one illustration of how popular
the suburbs were becoming. The suburbs popularity was increasing for several
different factors. The first being a sense of community.
Americans finally had their own society and could
tailor it how they pleased. These factors made most people happy. The most
important factor for living in the suburbs was the newly built highways. People
were now able to commute to their jobs, in the city, and go into the city for
other leisure activity. This allowed people to have what they pleased, and in
many cases it was, a less hectic, more peaceful, less polluted, life. Another
intriguing factor about the suburbs was land. One could have more land for less
in the suburbs versus the city. Suburbans were in love with living in the
suburbs.
There were many perks
to living in the suburbs like, the relationship with the countryside and the
location and the social aspects, but many people did not like the idea of
suburban lifestyle. It was seen by some as horrible to live beyond the city
limits because the outside was dangerous and unpleasant and polluted. They were
viewed as racist and this was due to William Levitt. When he created his first
suburb he deemed it as a "white only" community. So, most people
associated suburbs with danger and no diversity. All of the houses looked
similar, they were all in the same vicinity and the only people who lived here
were the same. The people living in the suburbs were blamed for making the
metropolitan areas less workable. Suburban’s were "blamed for draining the
cities of their economic and social vigor" (nps.gov). They were hated
because of it and horribly stereotyped for being racist and uninteresting. They
have been described as "poor creatures who neither have what they like nor
like what they have" (books.google.com). Today these stereotypes have been
mostly washed away.
Today there are suburbs
all around us; Hampton Cove is a great example of a modern day suburb. The
houses are generally the same, and you have the clubhouse and small lake and
golf course, public and private, and you have the main parts of the city in
close proximity. Providence is a great example of builders forcing a downtown
back into people’s lives. Americans, now, like the idea of having a nostalgic
downtown. It makes them feel like their community is a community and they have
a place to go and shop or drink coffee. I believe the suburban car was named
due to its resemblance of the suburban cars back post World War II. The cars in
the thirties were getting smaller, from a modern day Americans perspective it
does not look that much smaller, but in reality it is. These cars are now
enclosed and they are shorter, not as bulky, and large as the vintage looking
ones from the twenties. Americans were now able to afford these cars because
they cost less to make, so they were able to sell them for less and it did not
take as much to fill up for gas. The modern day suburban looks oddly similar to
the ones back in the thirties and sixties and that is how I believe it got its
name. I had a very difficult time finding why the car was actually named the
"Suburban" and gathered as much evidence as I could and came to my
own conclusions.
Throughout my research
process in US History this year I have learned to not give up and push through
my hate for research. I never liked research and most of this class I was
researching so I had to love it. This was the last research paper I will be
writing for US History and I feel as though I have made leaps and bounds in my
research process. I no longer just type in my topic for Google, pick some
random sites, and try to form a paper out of it. For my research this time, I
did type my topic in but different each time, for instance, I did type in
"definition of suburb", "what is a suburbia" and then based
off of information I gathered at some of those sites I started to form better
searches, "suburbs post world war II", and "stereotypes linked
with living in the suburbs". Then I needed reliable sources so I would
tack on "site:.edu" onto the back of some of my searches like, "Levittown
site:.edu". Because of my persistent attitude and Mrs. Lawson's helpful
guidance I am now able to look up reliable sources for my projects, while
learning a ton of information, and write an interesting paper.
Pictures:
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| This is the areal view of Levittown before anyone developed it. |
 |
|
This is the
areal view of Levittown after it was developed and William Levitt made into a suburb. |
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| William Levitt and his family |
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|
This is a small portion of the magazine
from 1917 written about the upcoming suburbs and the countryside versus suburban life. |
I used this resourceful source for information on
Levittown, which I was not aware of until I found this source! It told me all
about William Levitt and how he created his suburb, Levittown. This site
provided pictures and documentation about the town. I found it very helpful and
useful to me because it provided a lot of information and I feel as though the
source is reliable because it is a primary source.
I found this a very helpful and reliable sources
because it was published by a professor of urban affairs at the university of
Delaware. I feel that professors have a great understanding for topics they
teach in college and they are supposed to have the utmost knowledge in that
particular field of study.
This is another reliable source I found because
this is either a student or professor but they are from the University of
Pennsylvania and the authors name is Wendell E. Pritchett. I believe that
someone who is writing a document in college knows what they are talking about
and have done their research especially if it is set up in a research paper
format.
This is a url that has ".edu" on the end,
which tells me that it is an educational website. Educational websites are
understood to have knowledgable information about the particular subject that
the website is on. This website is also a primary source, it contains pictures
from the time period and explains in detail most of the subjects of my paper,
suburbs and how the car affects the suburbs.
This is a primary document. It is a magazine
written during the time period, 19th century, and had articles about the
countryside versus city life and how the suburbs came into importance. I know
that primary sources are reliable because they are literal documents that are
documenting a particular time.
This website contains valid information on the
suburbs and urban growth in America. It contains pictures that are from the
time period and illustrate the immense growth of urban and suburban regions
which is a primary source element of this website. It also ends in
".gov" which shows me that it is a government website.
This document is found on an educational website,
the url ends in ".edu", and illustrates the expanding metropolis.
Michael John Law, who is the author of this particular article on this website,
talks heavily on the significance of the car and how it has changed due
to changes in population densities. I know it is a reliable source because I
found it on a educational website, which means that the information must be
reliable because it has many viewers seeking the proper information.
This was a paper written by the geography
department at the St. Patrick's college and the history department of the
University of South Carolina. It is an educational website and department heads
of colleges were writing about the topic I was searching for which was
"suburbs site:.edu". I find this a reliable source not only because
it is an educational website, but because it is written by department heads
which shows me that they are for sure stating the facts correctly.
Definition of suburb
I used business dictionary for my definition website because I have never used it, and because it really explained in detail what a suburb was. It helped me to break down the real meaning of a suburb, which was super helpful in research for my paper!
