Rapid suburbanization across the United States in the years following WWII created an opportunity for the reinvention of the American middle class. Jacklyn Rogers uses an anthropological lens to explore how contemporary ideas about factors such as race, gender roles, and heritability shaped the development of suburban communities, including Rockville.

This talk will investigate how the development of Rockville neighborhoods of Roxboro, Rockcrest, and Twinbrook was influenced by notions of what a “typical American family” should look like and how the prevailing science-based reasoning denied many access to the idealized middle class.

Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd. is supported in part by a grant from the City of Rockville and funding from the Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.