The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community - Softcover

Herbert J. Gans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231055714 ISBN 13: 9780231055710

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1982

Synopsis

In 1955 Levitt and Sons, Inc. purchased almost all of Willingboro Township, New Jersey, a sparsely settled agricultural area seventeen miles from Philadelphia. They would build 1,200 homes; three basic house types would be erected; ten or twelve neighborhoods would emerge. This suburban experiment was the basis for one of the most famous case studies in urban sociology, Herbert J. Gans' The Levittowners. This classic work examines its subject from numerous angles: the beginnings of group life, the founding of churches, the emergence of party politics, family and individual adaptation, and other dimensions of the suburban experience. In a new introduction, written especially for this edition, Gans reflects on the past twenty years and their effect on the Levittown community.

About this title

About the Author:

Herbert J. Gans is professor of sociology at Columbia University. By profession a planner as well as a sociologist, he is also the author of The Urban Villagers, People and Plans, More Equality, Popular Culture and High Culture, and Deciding What's News.

Review:

The Levittowners does more than illuminate for us American suburbia; it also contributes to our understanding of that elusive matter, the quality of American life. (Nathan Glazer, Harvard University)

It will be a book well read by students of sociology and town planning, and from its reading they will profit greatly. (American Sociological Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0231055714
• ISBN 13: 9780231055710
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 474