Introduction: planning the postwar architect -- The culture of planning: the rhetoric and imagery of home front anticipation -- Old cities, new frontiers: mature economy theory and the language of renewal -- Advertising nothing, anticipating nowhere: architects and consumer culture -- The end of planning: the building boom and the invention of normalcy -- Afterword -- Appendix: wartime advertising campaigns
Summary
During the Second World War, American architecture was in a state of crisis. The rationing of building materials and restrictions on nonmilitary construction continued the privations that the profession had endured during the Great Depression. At the same time, the dramatic events of the 1930s and 1940s led many architects to believe that their profession--and society itself--would undergo a profound shift once the war ended, with private commissions giving way to centrally planned projects. The magazine Architectural Forum coined the term "194X" to encapsulate this wartime vision of postwar arc
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-244) and index
