Make America Great Again. The Republican slogan for election 2016 and the banner for Trump’s presidency. How you hear these words may depend upon who you are. Former president Bill Clinton notes, "If you're a white Southerner, you know... more
Make America Great Again. The Republican slogan for election 2016 and the banner for Trump’s presidency. How you hear these words may depend upon who you are. Former president Bill Clinton notes, "If you're a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don't you?" In fact, a congressional candidate from Tennessee removed what little subtlety there is in this statement and ran a Make America White Again campaign, meant to “evoke the mood of 1950s America, when television shows idealized the image of the happy white family.” As Diane Harris asserts in her book Little White Houses: How the Postwar Home Constructed Race in America, a similar language was widely used during the post war period to covertly communicate to white, Christian home buyers. This vocabulary supported pervasive discriminatory home purchasing and mortgage practices of the time. Joseph Eichler built and sold homes during these years. Whether he knew it or not, Eichler communicated with a language of his own, expressing openness to racial integration and ethnic difference. He accomplished this through documented policy, overt action and visual messages.
The article probes the social background to the controversial ‘Kitchen Debate’ between the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the US vice-president Richard Nixon, which occured at the American trade exhibition in Moscow during summer... more
The article probes the social background to the controversial ‘Kitchen Debate’ between the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the US vice-president Richard Nixon, which occured at the American trade exhibition in Moscow during summer 1959. Political histories narrowly focus on diplomatic point-scoring between the two leaders, leaving largely untouched the purpose of the landmark exhibition, and its expression of America's ‘suburban’ values. This discussion traces a broad arc exploring:
- The exchange between Khrushchev and Nixon, especially their discussion of housing - What was shown in the Moscow exhibition (detailing the display kitchen that prompted Khrushchev’s indignation), and the US State Department’s broad aims. - The expansion of suburbia in post-war America (census figures quoted), and changes in property development including the emergence of commuter suburbs. - The influential Levittown model for mass home construction & instant suburbs, and the impact of its highly publicised estates on Long Island, Connecticutt and New Jersey. - Nature and extent of suburban conformism, including pointed criticisms made by urban planning commentators, the sociologist William Whyte, and the Feminist Betty Friedan. - Mounting distress of women who did not feel fulfilled as homemakers, and their main grievances. - Segregation, and enforced racial exclusion at the Levittowns. - Portrayal of suburban values in the key literary works, ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’ (1955), ‘Revolutionary Road’ (1961), ‘The Stepford Wives’ (1972) - Efforts to raise the quality of home and suburb design in California, prompted by the magazine ‘Arts and Architecture’ - The pioneering Case Study House project. - Role of the Los Angeles firm Eames Office in post-war domestic design. - Contribution of Eames Office to the Moscow exhibition. 9pp.
