Title: Suburbanization in the 1950s | World History
Headings: Suburbanization in the 1950s
Suburbanization in the 1950s
The Baby Boom
Creating Suburbia
Popular Culture Glamorized Suburban Life

Content: Between 1941 and 1946, Ladies Home Journal featured several “dream houses” for young wives to fantasize about until after the war when their husbands would return and they could start living again. Popular Culture Glamorized Suburban Life
Popular culture began to glamorize the life young couples could live in suburbia, and the postwar economic boom made it possible for many Americans to satisfy their desires for a stable, secure family life with a brand new home. People who grew up during this period recall the images they saw everyday in popular culture. Selma Golub, one of the first to move into Levittown, Pennsylvania in the 1950s, says, “I grew up in the 40s and 50s, when you went to the movies a lot, and that was the culture you saw. You grew up with certain things in mind: to get married, have a family, own a car and own a house. For me to own a home in my 20s — I thought that was the greatest thing.” Members of the white middle-class remember moving to suburbia as a time of “joyful acquisition.” The postwar economic boom, accompanied by the ease with which one could obtain a house in the suburbs, made it simple for many middle-class families to embark on a quest for the American dream. Sources: