A Forgotten History of Long Island w/ Tim Keogh

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The suburbs have long been a symbol of American prosperity in the post-WWII era. Yet the contrast between suburban wealth and "inner city" poverty overlooks the stories of those living in suburbia who were unable to reach "the good life." In this episode Ben & Bob talk with Tim Keogh, whose new book In Levittown's Shadow: Poverty in America's Wealthiest Suburb (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2023), explores the history of suburbanization in Long Island, New York, and argues that post-WWII prosperity relied on those impoverished suburbanites who we've since forgotten.

Dr. Tim Keogh is assistant professor of history at Queensborough Community College, part of the City University of New York.

This is a rebroadcast of RTN #291 which originally aired as "A Forgotten History of American Suburbs w/ Tim Keogh" on December 4, 2023. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now.
0:08.0	Before we get to the topic of today's conversation, I've got a couple shows coming up.
0:13.0	If you guys are going to be around Nashville, June 11th, I'll be at the Lab at Zanis from my comedy game show, perfect timing.
0:20.0	That is always a blast.
0:21.8	One of my, one of the most fun things I do. Um, so that's June 11th, Thursday at 7 p.m.
0:26.9	And then me and Greg Jackson are, I guess you could say getting the band back together again,
0:32.7	although it was just like two weeks ago. Um, anyway, Wednesday, June 24th at 7 p.m.
0:38.2	Greg Jackson is going to be in Nashville talking about his new book, Been There, Done That.
0:43.9	It's going to be a talk.
0:45.0	We're going to have some conversation.
0:46.7	I'll be the host of the event.
0:49.2	That's going to be at the No Well Hotel on 4th Avenue in downtown Nashville.
0:53.7	So anyway, if you want to check out either one of those, links to get tickets to both of those
0:57.9	are at my Instagram, Saw Your Comedy.
1:01.4	I've just been trying to figure out a good way to get everybody, you know, all the events in
1:05.7	one place that saw your comedy.
1:07.8	Today on the show, we are talking with Tim Keough. His book in Levittown shadow,
1:12.4	Poverty in America's wealthiest suburb is a kind of a reassessment of the way that housing works,
1:18.0	the post-World War II housing bubble. And this kind of exceptional part of New York that
1:24.3	looks different than maybe we think it does. But I've got to say, if any of you guys
1:28.0	are thinking about doing history, thinking about ways to get at sources, Tim's use of available
1:33.7	sources to discover, you know, what he was looking for is to me really just it's the essence of
	...

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