The Root and Development of Suburbanization in America in the 1950s

This paper examines some of the major causes and characteristics of mass suburbanization in the U.S. during the 1950s as one of the defining features of American culture. It will first deal with the brief historical overview of cultural as well as institutional forces—the long-cherished ideal of living in suburbs and the federal government policy during the 1930s and after—which led to massive suburbanization in the postwar era. Following these, the paper also shows how home-ownership and suburbanization have interplayed and intertwined with class and racial politics in the U.S., which further reinforced the racially segregated built-in environment and suburbanization. Then, it examines the limits of suburbanization by looking at how the supposed “democratization†of American suburban ideal was largely confined within the perimeter of consumer culture, and how this functioned in the political context of the Cold War in the 1950s.