Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 25

Document Links:

Document 25.1 Metropolitan Highway Construction: Boston Transcript (1955)

Document 25.2 In the Suburbs Transcript (1957)

Document 25.3 HARRY HENDERSON, “The Mass-Produced Suburbs” (1953)

Document 25.4 MALVINA REYNOLDS, “Little Boxes” (1962)

Document 25.5 JACKIE ROBINSON, Testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights (1959)

Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 25

The following exercises provide an opportunity to use the sources collectively to respond to a guiding question.

Guiding Question: What factors shaped the growth of the suburbs after World War II, and how did the ideal of the suburban dream compare with the realities of suburban life for Americans in the 1950s?

Instructions

Below are three topics that might find a place in organizing an essay responding to the guiding question. This exercise asks you to identify which sources would provide relevant evidence for that topic. Select the best answers for each question. Choose ALL that apply. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 25.16

1. Which of the sources provides specific evidence about the economic, political, and social forces that encouraged and shaped the growth of suburbs in the 1950s? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.1: Metropolitan Highway Construction: Boston Transcript
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.2: In the Suburbs Transcript
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.3: Harry Henderson, The Mass-Produced Suburbs
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.4: Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.5: Jackie Robinson, Testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights

Question 25.17

2. Which of these documents provides specific evidence about the benefits that came with life in the suburbs in the 1950s? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.1: Metropolitan Highway Construction: Boston Transcript
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.2: In the Suburbs Transcript
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.3: Harry Henderson, The Mass-Produced Suburbs
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.4: Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 25.5: Jackie Robinson, Testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Correct. Document 25.1 describes the beneficial impact of highway expansion on suburban residents, who could now traverse “magic arteries” to get to their jobs in metropolitan Boston. Document 25.2 alludes to the positive elements of life in the suburbs, though it also recognizes that suburbanites’ personal lives could be trying at times. Document 25.3 describes the positive aspects of suburbanites’ lives. Document 25.4 is a satirical critique of the suburbs, but it describes many of the elements of suburban life that suburban residents saw in a positive light.
Incorrect: Document 25.5 stresses the discrimination that kept the suburbs white and harmed African Americans.

Question 25.18

3. Which of the following documents provides specific evidence about the negative developments that came with suburbanization? Choose ALL that apply.

kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 25.1: Metropolitan Highway Construction: Boston Transcript
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 25.2: In the Suburbs Transcript
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.3: Harry Henderson, The Mass-Produced Suburbs
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.4: Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 25.5: Jackie Robinson, Testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Correct: Document 25.3: Henderson describes the negative aesthetics of suburban life. Document 25.4: Reynolds casts a negative light on the mass production of suburban housing and on suburban homogeneity. Document 25.5: Robinson describes the discriminatory practices that kept suburbs white and harmed African Americans.
Incorrect: Document 25.1: This transcript describes only the positive elements of highway expansion and the proliferation of suburbs. Document 25.2: This transcript suggests that suburban life could be trying for individuals but paints the suburbs in a positive light.

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 198