Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb

Passé words like riveting, remarkable and even shocking come to mind when you think about describing this book. But Levittown is far too good to use such canned vocabulary. I was born in Willingboro, New Jersey in 1970 - while our nation and that area of the U.S. were still on the cusp of dealing with racial divides. My Mother moved into Levittown during the Summer of 1960, her family trying to escape to suburbia from the city of Philadelphia and what her family perceived as an area heightening in crime and diminishing in a quality place to raise children. This story struck me on levels I am both ashamed and proud to speak of.

Reading the language and racial slurs in this book were difficult. It was difficult because you can't imagine that just a mere 50 - 60 years ago people (old and young) felt so strongly about other human beings all because of the color of their skin. Page after page is punctuated with the `N'-word and it just hangs there in the air and...Read more

To some, the name "Levittown" conjures up images of crushing conformity spread out in row upon row of soulless Cape Cod "boxes." To others, it represents the ingenious entrepreneurial spirit of Levitt & Sons, the dynamic homebuilder embodied in the person of William Levitt, who enabled the wave of World War II veterans to purchase comfortable, if modest (two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom) mass-produced dwellings for less than $8,000. Without question, the story of Levittown reflects fundamental elements of America's post-war ethos.

Whether it was Brown v. Board of Education's challenge to the segregated classrooms of Topeka, Kansas, or the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, the 1950s likewise brought forth the first determined statements of the modern civil rights movement in America. In his stirring new book, David Kushner weaves these strands with Levitt's story to illuminate a lesser known but no less dramatic event in those tumultuous years --- the...Read more

Kushner has accurately portrayed the bigotry that existed in Levittown. As a teenager living several blocks away and knowing the families involved, it was shocking to see the hatred and violence of my neighbors and classmates. I remember delivering medicine to the Myerses and having to walk through the crowd and listen to the epithets and threats from people I had thought of as friends.
As my class prepares for our 50th anniversary of our high school graduation. I hope that all will read this book and reflect on hopefully how far we have come