Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs

Few historical tableaus are more iconic than the midcentury suburbs of Long Island. I can see it now: rows of identical houses, subsidized by federal spending, inhabited by white middle-class heteronormative families 2.3 children, attending well-funded schools. If there's a stereotypical image of the "American Dream," this is it. But after reading Mike Glass' new book, Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America , I can promise you'll never think about the suburbs quite the same way. Glass reveals that the way we paid for those homes and those schools—through debt financing on the capital markets—left midcentury suburbs unstable, unequal, and racially segregated. Even in the so-called "golden age of capitalism," suburban life was more precarious than I'd ever imagined. If you're ready to demolish all of the things you thought you knew about postwar suburbia, listen to today's episode with Mike Glass.

You can listen to Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs is an episode from Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast by Jessica Levy.

This episode is 42:54 long.

This episode was published on Dec 9, 2025.

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