Edward Berenson

Professor

New York University

US

Biography

Edward Berenson is a cultural historian specializing in the history of modern France and its empire, with additional interests in the history of Britain, the British Empire, and the United States. His most recent book is The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town (2019). He is at work on a book tentatively entitled Levittown International: Suburbanization in the Postwar World (Yale, 2025). In 2006, he was named a Chevalier dans l'ordre du mérit.

Articles (1)

enfrEdward Berenson

Levitt-villes in France

In 1965, William Levitt, America’s largest home builder and creator of the famous Levittowns, constructed a “new village” in the suburbs of Paris. He built 500 houses in Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, whose mayor wanted to create an alternative to the grands ensembles he hated. It was a huge success and the first of several Levitt-villes en France.