Book Chapter

CITIES AND SUBURBS IN THE EISENHOWER ERA

Scott, Amy L.

2017

Overview

Following World War II, Americans drastically changed how they built cities and how they used urban space for work, home, and play. Suburban growth and central city decline comprised two of the most pressing domestic challenges during Eisenhower's presidency. When Eisenhower took office, the nation was recovering from a severe postwar housing shortage. As middle‐class Americans created new communities on the urban rim, most turned their backs on the nation's declining city centers. During the Eisenhower era, the West epitomized the promises and perils of postwar suburban growth and metropolitan decentralization. By the mid‐1950s, cities had become the proving grounds for a national mass movement for African American civil rights. The simultaneous urbanization and politicization of Native Americans in the post‐ World War II period provides another striking example of how urban transformations sparked social movements that propelled the nation into the rights revolution of the 1960s.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: African American civil rights / Eisenhower Era / Eisenhower's presidency / metropolitan decentralization / nation's declining city centers / postwar housing shortage / post‐ World War II period / suburban growth / urban transformations
• ISBN: 9780470655214, 0470655216