"Michael R. Glass has done remarkable historical legwork in excavating the inner history of Levittown, transforming the way we understand this most iconic of suburbs. Cracked Foundations demolishes the myth of suburban security, asking us to look anew at post-World War II American history. A brilliant scholarly accomplishment."-- "Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics"

"Cracked Foundations will forever change the way we think about postwar suburbs. Michael R. Glass masterfully shows how suburban housing and school finance programs were designed by and for developers and financiers, not for middle-class families. These families assumed heavy debt and their aspirations toward financial security remained dependent on a highly volatile market--one that promised much more than it delivered and generated its own set of insecurities and inequities. This is an extraordinary book that not only deeply enriches and transforms our understanding of housing, education, and inequality in postwar suburbs (and beyond) but that is also well-crafted, boldly argued, and beautifully written."-- "Andrew W. Kahrl, author of The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America"

"In his new book, Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America, the urban historian Michael Glass looks behind the marketing that attracted flocks of Americans to places like Levittown and uses debt as a lens through which to understand suburban disparities."-- "The Atlantic"

"Glass carefully delineates how race exacerbated inequalities, while puncturing the presumption that suburbanization meant straightforward embourgeoisement for working-class whites."-- "Journal of Social History"

"An essential resource for numerous disciplines, including economics, education, history, political science, sociology, and urban studies, and for understanding contemporary problems such as unaffordable housing, unequal education, and how politics and public education funding contribute to these problems. This excellent book belongs in every college library."-- "CHOICE"