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Author: Steve Bergsman
Publisher: Dancing Traveller Publishing
ISBN: 9780987689757
Category : Levittown (N.Y.)
Languages : en
Pages : 418
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Book Description
One of the most successful and daring real estate developments in U.S. history was the building of Levittown, Long Island, in 1947. Although it became the prototype modern suburb, it was more reviled than appreciated during the first three decades of its existence. Intellectuals and critics attacked Levittown unmercifully, essentially calling it a boring environment that crushed the spirit of its population. Popular authors, such as Richard Yates, author of Revolutionary Road, used the modern suburb as a metaphor for creative sterility. When Pete Seeger sang, "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky; Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same," everyone knew he was talking about Levittown and all that it begot. As it turned out, the intellectuals and the critics got it all so very wrong from the start. Not only wasn't Levittown dullsville, but a surprising number of creative people passed through here, including songwriter Ellie Greenwich, singers Eddie Money and Billy Joel, Zippie The Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith, children's book illustrator Jon Buller, radio host John Gambling, TV political commentator Bill O'Reilly, Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground (the house band for Andy Warhol's factory), and Steve Bergsman, journalist and author. Steve Bergsman grew up in Levittown during those early years and looking back now as an aging baby boomer, he thought it a wonderful place to have spent a childhood. Growing Up Levittown: In a Time of Conformity, Controversy and Cultural Crisis is a love letter to this quintessential suburb. Juxtaposed against a prevailing history of criticism and literary slander, Growing Up Levittown is a memoir of a happy childhood.
Author: Steve Bergsman
Publisher: Dancing Traveller Publishing
ISBN: 9780987689757
Category : Levittown (N.Y.)
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Get Book Here
Book Description
One of the most successful and daring real estate developments in U.S. history was the building of Levittown, Long Island, in 1947. Although it became the prototype modern suburb, it was more reviled than appreciated during the first three decades of its existence. Intellectuals and critics attacked Levittown unmercifully, essentially calling it a boring environment that crushed the spirit of its population. Popular authors, such as Richard Yates, author of Revolutionary Road, used the modern suburb as a metaphor for creative sterility. When Pete Seeger sang, "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky; Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same," everyone knew he was talking about Levittown and all that it begot. As it turned out, the intellectuals and the critics got it all so very wrong from the start. Not only wasn't Levittown dullsville, but a surprising number of creative people passed through here, including songwriter Ellie Greenwich, singers Eddie Money and Billy Joel, Zippie The Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith, children's book illustrator Jon Buller, radio host John Gambling, TV political commentator Bill O'Reilly, Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground (the house band for Andy Warhol's factory), and Steve Bergsman, journalist and author. Steve Bergsman grew up in Levittown during those early years and looking back now as an aging baby boomer, he thought it a wonderful place to have spent a childhood. Growing Up Levittown: In a Time of Conformity, Controversy and Cultural Crisis is a love letter to this quintessential suburb. Juxtaposed against a prevailing history of criticism and literary slander, Growing Up Levittown is a memoir of a happy childhood.
Author: David Kushner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802719732
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
In the decade after World War II, one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home, not just any home, but a good one, with all the modern conveniences. The Levitts--two brothers, William and Alfred, and their father, Abe--pooled their talents in land use, architecture, and sales to create story book town with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. This is the story that unfolded in Levittown, PA, one unseasonably hot summer in 1957 on a quiet street called Deepgreen Lane. There, a white Jewish Communist family named Wechsler secretly arranged for a black family, the Myers, to buy the little pink house next door. What followed was an explosive summer of violence that would transform their lives, and the nation. It would lead to the downfall of a titan, and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world. It's a story of hope and fear, invention and rebellion, and the power that comes when ordinary people take an extraordinary stand.
Author: Margaret Lundrigan Ferrer
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738562285
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132
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Book Description
When developer Abraham Levitt and his two sons conceived the idea for Levittown in 1946, they were probably unaware of the future impact of their radical concept--to build cellarless, affordable tract housing on Long Island farmland. Levittown became the prototype suburban community that has been mirrored in towns throughout America and around the world. This delightful photographic history chronicles the growth and development of Levittown as returning World War II GIs flocked to it in droves, attracted by the promise of the American Dream of becoming homeowners. Despite criticism of its "stunning conformity," Levittown and its residents thrived as they raised families, started businesses, and created a close-knit community that exists to this day. This enchanting collection of photographs reveals the joys and struggles of Levittown's founders and residents as they carved their niche in American history.
Author: Dianne Harris
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822977826
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 446
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Book Description
Carved from eight square miles of Bucks County farmland northeast of Philadelphia, Levittown, Pennsylvania, is a symbol of postwar suburbia and the fulfillment of the American Dream. Begun in 1952, after the completion of an identically named community on Long Island, the second Levittown soon eclipsed its New York counterpart in scale and ambition, yet it continues to live in the shadow of its better-known sister and has received limited scholarly attention. Second Suburb uncovers the unique story of Levittown, Pennsylvania, and its significance to American social, architectural, environmental, and political history. The volume offers a fascinating profile of this planned community in two parts. The first examines Levittown from the inside, including oral histories of residents recalling how Levittown shaped their lives. One such reminiscence is by Daisy Myers, part of the first African American family to move to the community, only to become the targets of a race riot that would receive international publicity. The book also includes selections from the syndicated comic strip Zippy the Pinhead, in which Bill Griffith reflects on the angst-ridden trials of growing up in a Levittown, and an extensive photo essay of neighborhood homes, schools, churches, parks, and swimming pools, collected by Dianne Harris. The second part of the book views Levittown from the outside. Contributors consider the community's place in planning and architectural history and the Levitts' strategies for the mass production of housing. Other chapters address the class stratification of neighborhood sections through price structuring; individual attempts to personalize a home's form and space as a representation of class and identity; the builders' focus on the kitchen as the centerpiece of the home and its greatest selling point; the community's environmental and ecological legacy; racist and exclusionary sales policies; resident activism during the gas riots of 1979; and "America's lost Eden." Bringing together some of the top scholars in architectural history, American studies, and landscape studies, Second Suburb explores the surprisingly rich interplay of design, technology, and social response that marks the emergence and maturation of an exceptionally potent rendition of the American Dream.
Author: John J. Marnien
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737770169
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
LEVITTOWN is the story of two individuals, typical of many, who moved into the new community of Levittown as children and grew up there. Levittown was an original idea of William Levitt and his brothers, brought to Pennsylvania after a successful introduction in New York state. Levitt's plan of a community built out of nothing was just what the returning G.I.s needed in order to start their generation's new families. Levitt provided the homes, streets, pools, and schools, and the new residents provided the necessary enthusiasm and commitment to get the community up and running and to keep it going. The authors' memories provide a lively account of growing up in a time and place where there were no precedents, and everything was new. Reader input resulted in this updated, expanded second edition.
Author: Richard G. Wagner
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738572765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132
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Book Description
In 1951, Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia by builder pioneers Levitt and Sons; a superb collection of history and photographs illustrates the birth and growth of this unique area, explores the community that resulted and features residents' personal memories of the golden years. Original.
Author: Charles Albacore
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781070876207
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
An engrossing story about living life all over again and knowing what you know now. Molly Maguire is a charmer. She hangs 'round her neighbor, Charlie, that Italian family next door, plus her cousins who always bring spark into her life. Going to bed October 2020, she awakes, October 1962. She can't help but to write letters to President Kennedy telling him about Dallas, his affairs, and classified secret missiles in Cuba. Follow Molly as she sometimes wildly, and sometimes wistfully romps down Huckleberry Lane climbing that apple tree, again, with Charlie, and her many cousins from Auburn Road and some from Vandergrift PA. after she saves President Kennedy.
Author: Jason Diamond
Publisher: Coffee House Press
ISBN: 1566895901
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
For decades the suburbs have been where art happens despite: despite the conformity, the emptiness, the sameness. Time and again, the story is one of gems formed under pressure and that resentment of the suburbs is the key ingredient for creative transcendence. But what if, contrary to that, the suburb has actually been an incubator for distinctly American art, as positively and as surely as in any other cultural hothouse? Mixing personal experience, cultural reportage, and history while rejecting clichés and pieties and these essays stretch across the country in an effort to show that this uniquely American milieu deserves another look.
Author: John J. Marnien
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737770138
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
LEVITTOWN is the story of two individuals, typical of many, who moved into the new community of Levittown as children and grew up there. Levittown was an original idea of William Levitt and his brothers, brought to Pennsylvania after a successful introduction in New York state. Levitt's plan of a community built out of nothing was just what the returning G.I.s needed in order to start their generation's new families. Levitt provided the homes, streets, pools, and schools, and the new residents provided the necessary enthusiasm and commitment to get the community up and running and to keep it going. The authors' memories provide a lively account of growing up in a time and place where there were no precedents, and everything was new.
Author: Dennis M. Nardone
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503536742
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 203
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Book Description
The book will explain in my terms The West when I was growing upall the people, friends, and families that made it such a memorable and lasting creation and foundation of childhood, youth, as an adolescent right up to my high school years. The book will explain the neighborhood where we all played, shopped; bought our baseballs, lemon ice, candy, newspapers, bologna sandwiches, pizza; or just hung outour neighborhood schools, church, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Hopefully, my memories, reflections, and experiences of The West will bring you joy and many great memories like I have endured! Good reading to you as I return you to Growing Up in the West End of New Rochelle in the 50s60s the way I remember itmy memoirs.
