The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. One Sunday morning in March 1949, a group of nearly 300 people, clutching deck chairs and sleeping bags, lined up to buy new homes in what had, until recently, been a stretch of potato fields in central Long Island. They hoped to move to “fabulous Levittown,” as its developer, William J.