Posted: June 24th, 2015

ASSIGNMENT FOUR

ASSIGNMENT FOUR

The Jackson book dealt primarily with middle-class and upper-class suburbs – these are the communities that most people think of when they think of “suburb.”  However, as Becky M. Nicolaides demonstrated in My Blue Heaven, by the 1920s cities also witness the formation of working-class suburbs.  The working-class individuals and families who moved to these areas had many of the same hopes and dreams as their middle-class and upper-class counterparts.  However, their ability to fully realize their suburban dreams was limited by their financial situation and the built-environment (residential, commercial and industrial) in these working-class suburbs.  Nonetheless, these working-class suburbanites sought to defend their pieces of the American dream in many of the same ways as did other more affluent suburbanites, as they too sought to control who/what could become part of their suburbs – people and commercial/industrial activities.

Assignment four will involve reading part I only of My Blue Heaven; assignment five will involve reading part II.

For this assignment  you will be asked to write two five full page essays.  Total length should be 10 pages.  Each essay will be worth 50 points.

Based on part I (pp. 1-182):

Essay One:  Write an essay in which you discuss the social context of the community of Southgate in the 1920s and 1930s – i.e. who lived there (class, race, origin), how did they define community (i.e. strong or weak; were there institutions giving the residents any sense of common identity), how did various groups within the community (i.e. residents and merchants) interact.

Essay Two:  Write an essay in which you discuss the political context of the community of Southgate in the 1920s and 1930s – i.e. who held political power/elected office, what were the major issues and how did the people of Southgate line up on those issues.