ABSTRACT
After nearly two decades of economic struggle and deprivation, Americans living in the 1950s faced a new and welcome problem—abundance. The war wrenched the nation from the grips of the Depression, and steady, high economic growth continued through the 1960s. An expanding and predominantly white middle class vacated the cities for suburbs, purchased houses with the latest appliances, acquired automobiles, and settled down to have children. Suburbanization brought with it greater emphasis on the nuclear family, and an exaltation of motherhood for white married, middle-class women.
