USH Research Paper

"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: 

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.     

William Levitt and his family     

This is a small portion of the magazine from 1917 written about
the upcoming suburbs and the countryside versus suburban life. 

Graph showing the different races in the suburbs from 1990-2010 census.     

Citations:

Primary source: Levittown 

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. 

Interpreting Post-World War II Suburban Landscapes as Historic Resources

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. 

Suburban America in the Post War Years 

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. 

Automobiles shaping city life

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. 

Primary source: The countryside and suburban life magazine 

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. 

Urban Growth in American Cities 

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. 

Automobility and the expanding Metropolis 

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. 

Suburbs in transition: New approaches to suburban history 

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!