¶ … 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...
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).…
