1950s: Most middle-class families who buy new homes buy them in the suburbs. Eighty-.ve percent of the thirteen million homes built in the 1950s are in suburbs.

Today: The 2000 United States Census shows a slight shift in American population patterns. While there has been a 14 percent increase in suburban population over the last decade, growth was not consistent across all suburbs; 37 percent of suburbs either lost residents or did not change in population. In fact, many cities seem to be on the rebound, population-wise; nearly three-quarters of American cities grew during the 1990s.

1950s: Peyton Place (1956) is not only a huge best-seller but also a social phenomenon. Grace Metalious's novel exposes the secrets and scandals of a .ctional small town in New England. For the time, the novel's relatively candid presentation of teenage and adult sex is groundbreaking. The .lm adaptation of the...