25. Document Projects for Exploring American Histories, Document Project 25: The Postwar Suburbs

**Quiz for Document 25.4: Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes (1962)**

Quiz for Document 25.4: Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes (1962)

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

1. Based on these lyrics, with which statement would Malvina Reynolds be most likely to agree?

Suburbs and suburban residents are conformist.

Suburban residents do not care about urban areas.

Suburbs are for people who want to live a simple life.

Suburban life is something everyone should aspire to.

2. Malvina Reynolds most likely composed the song “Little Boxes” for which of the following types of audiences?

Young children

Suburban residents

Wealthy patrons of the arts

Activists and social critics

3. The existence and popularity of Reynolds’s song support which of the following conclusions?

Critics of suburbanization in the 1950s objected primarily to its reliance on the mass production of housing.

There was a small but significant number of Americans in the 1950s who objected to suburbanization and the growing cultural homogeneity.

In the 1950s, West Coast suburbs such as Daly City were considerably more uniform and conventional than those on the East Coast.

Nonconformists and critics of American culture in the 1950s were highly stigmatized and not publicly visible.

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 195