The American dream and suburban life after World War II

¶ … WWII and Identifications

American Suburbs after World War II

America post-World War II was filled with a massive exodus from city life to the life of the suburbs. With the government's financial sanctions of the creation of highways, and the desire for families to move out of cramped, city apartments, the American Dream manifested into one that would take them to once-rural environments. After the development of the suburbs, an entirely new community developed outside of the multicultural cities, with major economic and cultural results.

With the dawning of interstate highways and massive automobile production, transportation became feasible between states. One did not have to live in the city to experience its luxuries or work at the office. By the beginning of the 1960s, a grand number of city working suburbanites commuted between the suburbs and the city. Large estates were divided by the government, creating lands and building houses just outside the city (Long Island and Westchester County in New York, for example). These lands would then pave the way for many families to live there. After the growing years, the American Dream no longer pertained to making a success of oneself in the city; once the suburbs came to life, the American Dream involved rearing a family and owning a house with a two-car garage (Roberts).

Unfortunately, a dream life in the suburbs was only possible to middle-class Americans, who made just enough funds to be able to afford a car and a relatively cheap house mortgage. Veterans used low-interest mortgages from the G.I. Bill to move out to the suburbs, while mostly white families transplanted their households out to "greener pastures" (Roberts). Most families use the same reason for having moved to suburbia: that city life became too bland for child-rearing. With this reasoning, mostly young couples with one child or two moved to the suburbs to get away from an overly condensed city life (Gruenberg).

Middle-class American life, then, became associated with suburban lifestyle. With the popular move of some 12 million Americans into the suburbs, businesses also changed to accommodate the suburbanites (Salisbury). Shopping malls, fast food joints, drive-in theaters, and gas stations sprang up across the highways. Chain motels were created for those moving out of the cities and driving long distances to home. Communities grew from a cluster of suburban houses, where children and families congregated amongst each other as good neighbors "ought to do" in suburbia. By 1959, at least 47 million Americans lived in the suburbs (Salisbury).

Unfortunately, this era undoubtedly became connected to the cultural movement towards a "unified," "monotonous" lifestyle. Many American marketing and advertising were geared towards suburban households. Television shows ("I Love Lucy") showcased families who moved from city apartments to suburban households (Roberts). White children played with white children, Catholics with other Catholics, and Jews with other Jews (Gruenberg). American lifestyle no longer became associated with businesses in cities, but more on the fact that suburban neighborhoods were progressing towards a healthy, nuclear family and neighborhood.

The American Dream was a manifestation after the massive suburban movement. The society in the United States changed alongside this move, though not everyone was able to afford this luxury. Suburban lifestyle became a grounded community after World War II, and has remained a large part of American life even today.

Identifications

1. SCLC

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an American civil rights organization, its first president being Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The organization was founded through meetings soon after the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Dr. King consulted with various activists, Bayard Rustin and Ella Baker, among others. The SCLC struggled to gain membership and sponsorship at first, as black church communities in the South would be risking economic retaliation from the police, the White Citizens' Council, and even the Ku Klux Klan. Pastors and other church leaders would be threatened with arson and bombings, to say the least. The SCLC's major civil rights advocacy mirrored that of Dr. King's: boycotts and nonviolent forms of protest. After Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, the leadership passed on to Ralph Abernathy.

Resources

Gruenberg, Sidonie M. "Homogenized Children of New Suburbia: Mass-produced, standardized housing breeds standardized inhabitants, too -- especially among youngsters. Here is what parents can do about it. Children of the New Suburbia." New York Times (1923-Current file) 19 Sep. 1954, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. ProQuest. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Roberts, Sam. "1956: the Roads That Changed America: Suburbia, Shopping Malls, Fast Food, and Drive-in Everything the Interstate Highway System Gave Birth to Much of American Life as We Know It." New York Times Upfront. 13 Nov. 2006. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. .

Salisbury, Harrison E. "It's Not Smallness That's Wanted but Intelligent Bigness: SUBURBIA: Its People and Their Politics. By Robert C. Wood. 340 pp. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. $4. Intelligent Bigness." New York Times (1923-Current file) 25 Jan. 1959, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2007), ProQuest. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.