This paper is organized into four parts. Part One, The Historical Pattern and Its Study, notes that the impulse to suburbanize is probably as old as the city itself. However, because of magnitude alone, contemporary suburban settlement would have to be assessed as a phenomenon that is uniquely different from its predecessors. Part Two, The Changed Role of the Suburbs Since World War II, observes that, unlike the central city, the basic function and form of which have changed only in degree, the suburban settlements that have emerged since World War II have little in common with the ecological type called suburb previous to that time. Part III, Motivations of Housing Consumers in Opting for the Suburbs, asserts that knowing why the millions of American households that opted to live in the suburbs since World War II made that choice can tell us much about the future of our cities. Part IV, The Impact of Race Upon Suburbanization, proposes that because in recent decades that exodus from the central city to the suburbs peaked at the same time that a large number of newcomers to the large metropolitan areas were readily identifiable minorities, there has been much distortion of what has been involved. Some have confused coincidence with causation. (Author/JM)