Once the American Dream: Inner-Ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States

1. Once the American Dream

1 Once the American Dream I n his book The Epic of America, historian James Truslow Adams first coins the term “the American Dream.” He states, “[The American Dream is] that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.... It is ... a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Adams 1931: 404). The American Dream rests on the belief that even those from the humblest origins can achieve social eminence and a richer standard of living. This dream has inspired many Americans and has attracted millions of immigrants to the United States in search of prosperity and a new life. It has shaped the country’s image and has brought forth strong feelings of national pride (Mennell 2007). The American Dream manifests itself most acutely in the American suburb. Over time, suburbia has evolved to become that imagined land of opportunity, the place where life is better and richer and fuller for everyone. In their early history, suburbs were “bourgeois utopias” available only to society’s elite (Fishman 1987). Early in the nineteenth 2 / Chapter 1 century, tensions between social classes, the tremendous problem of overcrowding , and the more noxious aspects of industrialization caused the cities’ affluent to seek escape at the suburban fringe. Suburbs were envisioned as sanctified spaces in deep contrast to the wicked, irreverent, and gritty industrial city. Eventually, and most profoundly in the postwar period, suburbs acquired a new image of material well-being for everyone, even those from the humblest origins. Suburbs were reinterpreted as the ultimate path to material success and the true expression of the American Dream. This dream took concrete form in the physical structure of the suburban house, usually complete with an automobile and private yard. In the 1950s, Americans moved en masse to the suburbs. Housing was not readily available during the war years, and many young families lived with their parents or in-laws or packed into cramped apartments in the city. Spurred by postwar federal housing policies, white Americans, many of them returning World War II veterans, were suddenly able to afford new homes in the suburbs. The suburban boom of the postwar era presented new opportunities for homeownership and the possibility of a middle-class lifestyle. As Kenneth Jackson states, “The American suburb was transformed from an affluent preserve to the normal experience of the middle class” (Jackson 1985: 215). In a study of American automobile workers in this postwar period, Ely Chinoy (1955) sought to understand their perceptions of the American Dream and opportunities for progress. Spending more than a year with workers from the so-called ABC plant in the pseudonymous midwestern city of Autotown, Chinoy interviewed white male workers and found that many lacked hope for any major advancement within the factory. They envisioned progress in another way. Ultimately, they felt they were “getting ahead” if they were each able to buy a new car, a new washing machine, and a small home of their own, all possessions needed for living the good, middle-class suburban life. The workers redefined advancement through the consumption of middle-class goods. Single-family houses in particular became the “fundamental components of the new identity kit for middleclass status” (Knox 2005: 36). For these workers of the postwar era, real advancement through the production process was unattainable, but a house and an automobile in the suburbs were viewed as marks of success, achievements of the American Dream. A great symbol of suburban possibility was Levittown, a suburb on Long Island created by developers Levitt and Sons between 1947 and 1951. Once the American Dream / 3 When first built, this quintessential postwar seven-square-mile suburb contained close to 17,500 houses. In her book Expanding the American Dream, Barbara Kelly (1993: 148) recalls an interview between an exchange student and a Levittown resident who stated, “The war was over, and we were living in one room in my parents’ apartment. . . . Think of it, Wei Ren, we were living in one room with two children. The boys had come from overseas and all we wanted was a home of...