Perfect Communities

“Excellent… . The second chapter of Mr. Berenson’s book, which chronicles the building of Levittown, N.Y., reads like a how-to manual for reversing America’s housing woes.”—Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal“The sun barely set on the Levitt family’s global real estate empire, from Long Island and the East Coast to far flung outposts in Puerto Rico and France. Perfect Communities is a compelling history of how Levittowns remade suburbia and attempted to remake the world.”—Thomas J. Sugrue, author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis“More than 10,000 independent suburbs surround the major cities of the United States. Some are widely known, but Levittown is the most famous of them all. The effort had obvious shortcomings, but the Levittown homes were affordable, and they turned dreams into realities for families that were desperate for space. With clarity and precision, Perfect Communities tells a remarkable story of how our modern nation came to be.”—Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University“Perfect Communities provides an insightful analysis of the rise and fall of William Levitt and his Levittown developments. It makes an important contribution to the scholarship of housing, suburbanization, racial segregation, and Levittowns’ role in these dynamics of metropolitan development.”—Gregory D. Squires, editor of The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the Federal Fair Housing Act

Edward Berenson is a professor of history at New York University and director of its Institute of French Studies. His books include Europe in the Modern World, The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story, and The Accusation. He lives in Tarrytown, NY.