Synopses & Reviews
In the decade after World War II , real estate developer Levitt & Sons helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish family secretly arranged for a black family to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world.
David Kushner is the author of
Masters of Doom and
Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids. A contributing editor at
Rolling Stone and
Wired, he has also been published in the
New York Times,
New York,
Entertainment Weekly,
Parade,
Salon, and the
Village Voice. He does commentary for NPR, and teaches journalism at New York University. Kushner lives not far from Levittown in New Jersey.
David Kushner's Levittown tells the true story of the first African-American family to move into the iconic suburn, Levittown, PA. In the decade after World War II , one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. The LevittsWilliam, Alfred, and their father, Abepooled their talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy.
The events that unfolded in Levittown, PA, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish Communist family named Wechsler secretly arranged for a black family, the Myerses, to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world. Levittown is a story of hope and fear, invention and rebellion, and the power that comes when ordinary people take an extraordinary stand. And it is as relevant today, more than fifty years later, as it was then.
"In [this] vigorous and often surprising narrative, David Kushner journeys into the racially charged heart of what the newspapers once trumpeted as 'the most perfectly planned community in America' . . . He deftly splices together the experiences of two families at the center of what became a terrifying ordeal."Wall Street Journal
"In 1957, the event immediately recognized as a watershed moment in civil rights was the attempted integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark . . . But, in 1957, there was also Levittown. The equally harrowing story of how one black family tried to break the color line in that suburb outside of Philadelphia had all the elements of Little Rock, yet it's largely been forgotten by history. In Levittown, David Kushner rectifies that with a spare, brisk but always indignant account of another watershed moment that, while overshadowed by Little Rock and other events, was in many ways more consequential."Los Angeles Times
"[Kushner's] storytelling techniques capture a drama that is often lacking in academic studies . . . A compelling read."Chicago Tribune
"A propulsive, deft page-turner . . . Kushner achieves cinematic immediacy in reconstructing . . . a moment when suburbanites chose between everyday evil and their better angels."Time Out Chicago
"A riveting account of two familiesone African-American, the other white and Jewishwho worked together . . . against tremendous odds to begin the inevitable integration of America's first suburbs."Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Kushner delivers his story with verve. It's an appalling and timely one."St. Petersburg Times
"A dramatic social history of the Pennsylvania suburb."USA Today
"This is a multilayered tale of public policy, personal desire for a better life, McCarthyism, and Communist Party support for civil rights . . . Kushner expertly recounts the events and places them in a broader historical context. The book is a valuable contribution to the literature on suburbia. It is a story of racial backlash but also of the Myers family's courage and the enormous outburst of support of neighbors and people across the country who recognized the injustice they challenged."Jewish Book World
"A mesmerizing account of the efforts to integrate America's most famous suburb."AARP The Magazine
Kushner has gathered a mass of material, organized it effectively, and tells a gripping story. After reading it, Americans will understand how suburbs became so white in the first place and what two familiesone black, one whitedid to remedy the situation.”James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Sundown Towns
A gripping, beautifully-written history of a hot summer in one town where so many threads of postwar American history came togethersuburbanization, segregation, the civil rights movement, McCarthyism. A real page-turner.”Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were and Marriage, a History
"[An] absorbing study of racial politics in America's model postwar suburb . . . Written as a sort of novelistic narrative history, Levittown traces the stories of two sets of disparate protagonists . . . Kushner relates [the drama] with judicious economy and an eye for the effective image."Bookforum
"Riveting . . . Kushner's fast-paced account deftly re-creates the drama, which, though largely forgotten today, received nationwide coverage as it unfolded."Barnes and Noble Review
"This is a story well worth telling and one well told in an affecting account of humanity at its worst and ultimately triumphant best."Bookreporter.com
"Rolling Stone and Wired contributing editor Kushner skillfully pieces together a shameful chronicle of racial discrimination during the American postwar economic boom. The child of Jewish immigrants, Abraham Levitt became a successful real-estate developer in the midst of the Great Depression. He bought land on Long Island, the new frontier of suburbia, with sons Bill (the front man) and Alfred (the designer). They developed housing efficiently and sold it affordably. In 1946, they transformed the farming community of Island Trees, Long Island, into Levittown, a self-contained development geared toward the 16 million returning veterans. Proclaiming that 'an undesirable class can quickly ruin a community,' Bill Levitt barred blacks from buying into the complex. This discrimination was supported by the ingrained business practices of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, which gave higher marks to homogenous communities and 'redlined' bad areas. However, after the opening of a second Levittown just north of Philadelphia in 1952, events converged to challenge these policies. Civil-rights groups made integrating the new Levittown a top priority, and Jewish activists Bea and Lew Wechsler invited the African-American Myers family to move in next door at 43 Deepgreen Lane in August 1957. Over the next months, the Myerses and Wechslers endured harassment, heckling, mob violence and cross-burning. Civil-rights sympathizers clashed with anti-integration residents. A KKK-sponsored organization secured a neighboring house for meetings, complete with display of the Confederate flag. Kushner's immediate story of the trial and conviction of the racist mob's leaders occurs within a larger frame of national civil-rights upheavals, including the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the murder of Emmett Till and the integration of Little Rock Central High School. The Levittown fracas, he demonstrates, was a crucial moment in the overall struggle. A remarkable story fashioned into a dramatic narrative."Kirkus Reviews
"In 1957, Levittown, PA, was known as a remarkable suburb. It was built by the innovative Abe Levitt & Sons, who used the new mass-production techniques for a planned community that could be constructed quickly, included comfortable homes with state-of-the-art appliances, and was affordable for returning veterans. The covenants, however, implied that the community was for whites only, and this policy was backed up by Home Owners Loan Corporation. When Lew and Bea Wechsler, disillusioned Communists and civil rights advocates, decided to challenge this policy and help a black couple, Daisy and Bill Myers, move next door, mob violence immediately occurred, some of which was instigated by outsiders who were members of the KKK. This account centers on the background of the two families and their growing friendship as they endured vicious attacks by their neighbors and the apathetic protection of the police. It is also the story of the Levitt family: Abe, the brilliant and enterprising father; Bill, the egotistical, power-hungry, and controlling son; and his brother, Alfred, the gifted and unconventional architect. This story of a conflicted, fearful neighborhood is told against the wider background of the Civil Rights Movement and the fallout from McCarthyism. Students may know of Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges and the students of Little Rock, AR. This courageous story is also one that should be heard."Jackie Gropman, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library System, Fairfax, Virginia, School Library Journal
"In 1957, Bev and Lew Wechsler, activists and residents of Levittown, PA, welcomed Daisy and Bill Myers and their children to move next door. The Myers thus became the first black family to reside in Levittown, built and maintained as an explicitly 'whites only' suburb. Rolling Stone contributing editor Kushner frames the Myers's story within the rise of self-assured entrepreneur developer Bill Levitt, who built wildly successful postwar suburbs and was an unrepentant defender of racially exclusive policies. Kushner also limns the contemporary civil rights struggle but focuses on the immediate fallout of the Myers's move into Levittown: nonstop protests, near-riots, and threats from appalled residents backed by out-of-town white supremacists, which were countered by the Wechslers and other forward-thinking residents with support from local Quaker and human rights groups. Though the Myers family prevailed in the courts, and Levitt's communities would be officially integrated by 1960, the tension of that summer is still palpable in this gripping account. Timing gives this publication an additional layer of historic intrigue: in November 2008, voters in Bucks County, PA, home to Levittown, selected Barack Obama for President by an 8.5 percent margin."Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Library Journal
"Migration to suburbia has long been an American ambition, but its allure was never stronger than in the post-WWII years, when the fantasy of a dream house played to the imagination of millions of Americans, especially returning veterans. Already waiting for many of them was a model community on the North Shore of Long Island called Levittown, the brainchild of Abraham Levitt and his sons, William and Alfred, the nation's first real estate tycoons. But Levittown came with its own set of requirements: perfectly manicured lawns, no fences and no black families. In 1957, as the Levittsby now massively successful and nationally laudedhad already expanded to a second model city, two families challenged the segregationist policy: one, a white Jewish Communist family, secretly arranged for the other, a black family, to buy the house next door. In an entertaining round-robin format, Kushner relays each party's story in the leadup to a combustible summer when the integration of America's most famous suburb caused the downfall of a titan and transformed the nation."Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
In the decade after World War II , real estate developer Levitt & Sons helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish family secretly arranged for a black family to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world.
Synopsis
In the decade after World War II, real estate developer Levitt & Sons helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish family secretly arranged for a black family to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world. David Kushner is the author of Masters of Doom and Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Wired, he has also been published in the New York Times, New York, Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Salon, and the Village Voice. He does commentary for NPR, and teaches journalism at New York University. Kushner lives not far from Levittown in New Jersey.
David Kushner's Levittown tells the true story of the first African-American family to move into the iconic suburn, Levittown, PA. In the decade after World War II, one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. The Levitts--William, Alfred, and their father, Abe--pooled their talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy.
The events that unfolded in Levittown, PA, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish Communist family named Wechsler secretly arranged for a black family, the Myerses, to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world. Levittown is a story of hope and fear, invention and rebellion, and the power that comes when ordinary people take an extraordinary stand. And it is as relevant today, more than fifty years later, as it was then.
In this] vigorous and often surprising narrative, David Kushner journeys into the racially charged heart of what the newspapers once trumpeted as 'the most perfectly planned community in America' . . . He deftly splices together the experiences of two families at the center of what became a terrifying ordeal.--Wall Street Journal
In 1957, the event immediately recognized as a watershed moment in civil rights was the attempted integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark . . . But, in 1957, there was also Levittown. The equally harrowing story of how one black family tried to break the color line in that suburb outside of Philadelphia had all the elements of Little Rock, yet it's largely been forgotten by history. In Levittown, David Kushner rectifies that with a spare, brisk but always indignant account of another watershed moment that, while overshadowed by Little Rock and other events, was in many ways more consequential.--Los Angeles Times
Kushner's] storytelling techniques capture a drama that is often lacking in academic studies . . . A compelling read.--Chicago Tribune
A propulsive, deft page-turner . . . Kushner achieves cinematic immediacy in reconstructing . . . a moment when suburbanites chose between everyday evil and their better angels.--Time Out Chicago
A riveting account of two families--one African-American, the other white and Jewish--who worked together . . . against tremendous odds to begin the inevitable integration of America's first suburbs.--Minneapolis Star Tribune
Kushner delivers his story with verve. It's an appalling and timely one.--St. Petersburg Times
A dramatic social history of the Pennsylvania suburb.--USA Today
This is a multilayered tale of public policy, personal desire for a better life, McCarthyism, and Communist Party support for civil rights . . . Kushner expertly recounts the events and places them in a broader historical context. The book is a valuable contribution to the literature on suburbia. It is a story of racial backlash but also of the Myers family's courage and the enormous outburst of support of neighbors and people across the country who recognized the injustice they challenged.--Jewish Book World
A mesmerizing account of the efforts to integrate America's most famous suburb.--AARP The Magazine
Kushner has gathered a mass of material, organized it effectively, and tells a gripping story. After reading it, Americans will understand how suburbs became so white in the first place and what two families--one black, one white--did to remedy the situation.--James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Sundown Towns
A gripping, beautifully-written history of a hot summer in one town where so many threads of postwar American history came together--suburbanization, segregation, the civil rights movement, McCarthyism. A real page-turner.--Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were and Marriage, a History
An] absorbing study of racial politics in America's model postwar suburb . . . Written as a sort of novelistic narrative history, Levittown traces the stories of two sets of disparate protagonists . . . Kushner relates the drama] with judicious economy and an eye for the effective image.--Bookforum
Riveting . . . Kushner's fast-paced account deftly re-creates the drama, which, though largely forgotten today, received nationwide coverage as it unfolded.--Barnes and Noble Review
This is a story well worth telling and one well told in an affecting account of humanity at its worst and ultimately triumphant best.--Bookreporter.com
Rolling Stone and Wired contributing editor Kushner skillfully pieces together a shameful chronicle of racial discrimination during the American postwar economic boom. The child of J
About the Author
David Kushner is the author of Masters of Doom and Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Wired, his work has appeared in the New York Times, New York, Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Salon, Spin, and the Village Voice. He is also a regular commentator for NPR. Kushner currently lives not far from Levittown in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters.