David Hasberstam's Summary of the Fifties; American Suburbia
             In this chapter of Hasberstam's book, he shows us the invention of the suburb, and gives us an understanding of how housing became modernized. Hasberstam describes how a man named William Levitt changed American society. William Levitt came from the Pacific after the war and saw an immediate need for housing. He concluded quick, cheap housing was necessary because of the increasing amount of families being created. With experience in creating instant airfields for the Navy, he applied his knowledge, along with former military partners, and created a moving, human assembly line to efficiently create housing. Derived from Henry Ford's idea, instead of having the product move down a line, the producers moved down the line. Levitt wanted nothing less than perfection and even produced his own nails and timber to be sure of fast production. This masterpiece of work twenty miles from Manhattan on 1000 acres of land later got coined the name "Levittown." However, critics que!
             stioned the uniformity of such developments as a negative impact on society. Lewis Mumford described this was of living as "...a low-grade uniform environment from which escape is impossible."
             He claimed there was no identity or individuality and that all levels of distinctiveness have dissipated. Levittown residence, however, claimed the fact that they were pleased with the amount of diversity in their neighbors. One issue did reflect the problem with society at the time, black home ownership. Levitt banned blacks from the town saying that "we can solve a housing problem, or a racial problem, but not both at once." Levitt did solve the housing problem in America by his ingenious construction of suburbs, which contributed to building techniques that are used today.
             ------------------------------------------------------------------------
             ...