In four chapters, OWNED traces the history of housing in America since 1945. It unravels a complicated, painful, and often disturbing history and shifting perceptions about the significance of the home and home ownership. *** Tell me how you live, and I’ll tell you who you are. The place we call home fundamentally shapes our lives. OWNED provides an analysis of how government support for suburban homeownership radically transformed living conditions in the U.S. after World War II. At the same time, those housing policies effectively cemented racism directed against African Americans. More recently, real estate prices across the U.S. skyrocketed, due to the mass issuing of insufficiently secured mortgages. As a consequence, a wave of foreclosures left many families homeless. This sub-prime mortgage crisis came at a time when the widespread loss of traditional manufacturing had already sent shockwaves through social life in America. Today, owning a home in a good neighborhood is a dream that is no longer attainable for many younger Americans of all ethnic backgrounds. The postwar social contract is in tethers. At present, it is unclear what will replace it. As one contributor puts it: "If we as a country don't pay attention to the places where people live, the homes that people have, then we'll continue to go in circles and not really get to the root of the problem."