William H. Whyte: The Organization Man, 1956. “Commonly acknowledged as the best sociological analysis of the new suburbs.” (80)


“Whyte suggested that in Park Forest, and other like suburbs, the corporate ethic, with its emphasis on teamwork and on the downplaying of the solo individualist, was creating a new social way of life. The new suburbs, with their interchangeable houses and families having shallow community roots, were simply reflections of the corporate ethic...the ethic of the organization, with its emphasis on mass-produced uniformity, produced newly constructed suburbs of considerable compulsive socialibility [sic] and group activity but little originality.” (81)

(Palen, J. John. The Suburbs. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995. Print.)