Post-World War II America was a period marked by the shift of populations from cities to suburbs. Thanks to the GJ. Bill (which provided government funding for the college education of men exiting the armed services), thousands of men who would never have been able to go to college found the way suddenly made easier A building boom meant that those better educated men marry and the families could buy the new houses being built on tracts all across suburban America.

The decade also marked the beginning of a period of domestic perfection. Television would turn the postwar ideal of perfect families in perfect homes surrounded by perfect white fences into the national Image. Unfortunately for many families, failure to live up to this Ideal resulted in depression and despondency-much like Doc and Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba. Darkness was also evident in the political...