Cracked Foundations

“Cracked Foundations does the near impossible—it breaks new ground with a surprising history about the suburban boom in the United States after World War II. It is a history we all assume to know about American suburbs: little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same, housing the quintessential white nuclear family. But in tearing the mask off the conventional history of America’s golden age, an underbelly of rising debt, tax burdens, struggling schools, and insecurity is revealed. With painstaking research, refreshing insights, and smart arguments, this book makes an extraordinary contribution.” (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership) “Michael R. Glass has done remarkable historical legwork in excavating the inner history of Levittown, transforming the way we understand this most iconic of suburbs. Cracked Foundations demolishes the myth of suburban security, asking us to look anew at post–World War II American history. A brilliant scholarly accomplishment.” (Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics) “Cracked Foundations will forever change the way we think about postwar suburbs. Michael R. Glass masterfully shows how suburban housing and school finance programs were designed by and for developers and financiers, not for middle-class families. These families assumed heavy debt and their aspirations toward financial security remained dependent on a highly volatile market—one that promised much more than it delivered and generated its own set of insecurities and inequities. This is an extraordinary book that not only deeply enriches and transforms our understanding of housing, education, and inequality in postwar suburbs (and beyond) but that is also well-crafted, boldly argued, and beautifully written.” (Andrew W. Kahrl, author of The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America)

Michael R. Glass is Assistant Professor of History at Boston College.