While Long Island developed a reputation for affluence throughout the 20th Century, there has always been a parallel history of the everyday workers and servants who toiled in the shadow of that reputation. The economic boom of the war years and the subsequent population boom in the 1950s did not change that.

Tim Keogh, assistant professor of history at Queensborough Community College, delves into this history in his book Levittown’s Shadow: Poverty in America’s Wealthiest Suburb. He documents the influence of federal spending in the 1940s, the questionable building practices of the Levitts, and a host of attempts to alleviate poverty and fight the dominance of single family housing on Long Island.

Further Research

• In Levittown’s Shadow: Poverty in America’s Wealthiest Suburb (Chicago Press)
• Suffolk County Online Records
• Nassau County Land Records Viewer
• “Business Zone Helps Islip Reclaim a Slum.” (NYT)
• A Freedom Budget for All Americans (The Atlantic)
• Audio Footnotes (related episodes):
  • Making Long Island
  • Cold War Long Island
  • Long Island Migrant Labor Camps