ABSTRACT
Elaine Tyler May had two different intentions in writing Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. May analyzes areas of 1950s and 1960s American culture and articulates the lived experience in suburban enclaves quite vividly. She accurately describes the tensions of suburban life for American families, detailing the deviancies and subversions that domestic containment supposedly repelled. May draws upon a number of sources to support her central argument and articulate the mood of the period. Of these, perhaps the most intriguing is the Kelly Longitudinal Study (KLS), offering an excellent impression of how young Americans—particularly women, and especially wives—felt within the suburban home and nuclear family. May's study aimed to offer an alternative assessment of the postwar boom in marriage and parenthood. May also acknowledges the increases in marriages and birth rates, and the abundance and prosperity that abounded in the domestic sphere.
