The McMansionization of Suburbia: Size, Status, and the American Dream of Homeownership Público

Black, Jacqueline Michelle (2010)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/1544bp42q?locale=es
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Abstract

The American Dream is exemplified by the dream of homeownership. To own a
home in America means the homeowner has achieved a certain economic and social
standing. Suburbanization contributed to this dream, and a home in the suburbs
signified the suburbanite was truly wealthy. Exclusive enclaves represented this
wealth in the mid-nineteenth century. As more American's moved to the suburbs
after World War II, however, residents looked for new ways to demonstrate status.
The development of Levittown and other communities like it brought about a newly
emerged middle-class who felt successful solely on the basis of owning a home.
Today, with more than half of the country living in the suburbs, the affluent are
looking for new means to demonstrate their wealth, class, and status. The
McMansion has permeated the American suburban landscape.
In this thesis, I look at how this history has led to the McMansion
phenomenon and how square footage has become the primary indicator of an affluent
suburbanite's wealth.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Upper class Enclaves

"Bourgeois Utopia"

"Catalog Castles"

Modernism

Levittown

The McMansion

Representing Social Class

Conclusion

About this Honors Thesis

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