Expanding the American Dream

Barbara M. Kelly is Assistant Professor and Curator of the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University.

• FiguresForewordPrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Construction 2. The Plan in the Planned Community 3. Houses Fit for Heroes 4. The House Becomes a Home 5. Expanding the American Dream 6. A Closer Look 7. Myths and Meanings 8. The Politics of House and Home 9. Postscript Appendix I. The Sale of Rental UnitsAppendix II. The Women's Congress on HousingAppendix III. Comparative Social Statistics on Levittown over Time NotesBibliographyIndex

"Urban/suburban historians have been insufficiently attentive to the physical environment as a source of historical evidence. Architectural historians have been interested primarily in the initial design of buildings, in ferreting out the designer's sources and intentions. Kelly joins a growing number of specialists in vernacular architectural history and material culture studies who are interested in understanding the meanings of buildings by looking at their use(s) and change(s) as well as their initial designs."— Mary Corbin Sies, University of Maryland"Ms. Kelly has written a book that will be used both in courses concerned with suburbanization and those engaged with the continuous process of environmental design and redesign. One of the greatest delights of the book is the way she connects familiar artifacts and processes — drying clothes, redoing a kitchen, adding a room, growing older — to the design of communities and the politics of gender and class." — Seymour J. Mandelbaum, University of Pennsylvania