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At Home in Postwar France Nicole C. Rudolph

At Home in Postwar France By Nicole C. Rudolph

At Home in Postwar France by Nicole C. Rudolph


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Summary

After World War II, France embarked on a national project of modernization, which included the development of mass housing. At Home in Postwar France reveals how modernizers saw the home as a site for social engineering and nation-building, and identifies the emergence of a right to comfort that shaped new expectations for well-being.

At Home in Postwar France Summary

At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort by Nicole C. Rudolph

After World War II, France embarked on a project of modernization, which included the development of the modern mass home. At Home in Postwar France examines key groups of actors - state officials, architects, sociologists and tastemakers - arguing that modernizers looked to the home as a site for social engineering and nation-building; designers and advocates of the modern home contributed to the democratization of French society; and the French home of the Trente Glorieuses, as it was built and inhabited, was a hybrid product of architects', planners', and residents' understandings of modernity. This volume identifies the right to comfort as an invention of the postwar period and suggests that the modern mass home played a vital role in shaping new expectations for well-being and happiness.

At Home in Postwar France Reviews

Her balanced reading of all kinds of interesting material-from architectural designs to household goods catalogues-offers many new perspectives on France's postwar years, not least because it shows how citizens interacted with the French state on an everyday level through design, architecture and space. * Modern & Contemporary France

At Home in Postwar France convincingly argues that the provision of comfort in modern apartments served as a catalyst for change by raising expectations for domestic comfort across social classes during the Thirty Glorious Years. * H-France Review

A fascinating study...By historicizing domestic space and reconstructing debates around planning and design, Rudolph provides a valuable look through the keyhole of postwar France. * Home Cultures. The Journal of Architecture, Design and Domestic Space

At Home in Postwar France presents a fascinating look at the conception and dissemination of a certain idea of the modern home as a part of France's project of national renewal after the Second World War...It presents a clear and detailed discussion of the evolution of French housing and urban planning policy. By explaining the implications of policy shifts and providing biographical notes on the various key policy makers, she turns what could have been a dry topic into a lively read. This book will be of interest to all scholars of postwar urban planning and architectural history and consumer culture. * Planning Perspectives

...an excellent analysis of this exciting period in France's housing history. * French History

All in all a book well worth reading; it examines and presents with great sensitivity and insight a French modernizing project that has been alien to the German as well as Anglo-Saxon public. * H-Soz-Kult

[This book] interweaves an impressive range of subjects that factored into the housing question. Rudolph ably assesses the motives and goals of each of the individuals and organizations involved, and deftly traces areas of continuity and change between prewar and postwar housing-related questions... [It] compellingly establishes that the concept of a modern, comfortable home was integral to the efforts of state and society to create a more democratized and modernized France in the postwar era. * American Historical Review

Rudolph's monograph [is an] important addition to the fields of modern France and the history of urbanism. It is especially noteworthy for its contributions to the burgeoning field of post-1945 studies, to research on the social sciences, and to discussions about membership in the nation. * Contemporary French Civilization

The vast amount of information, the coherence of the narrative, the elegance of the writing, the soundness of [Rudolph's] judgments, and the significance of her story to our understanding of France's 'trentes glorieuses' suggest that this will be a book that will make a difference to people's thinking about the era. * Steven Zdatny, University of Vermont

Through a unique lens-a focus on home interiors-[the author] underscores the centrality of housing for a nation recovering from depression and war. In sum, the making of the modern home was an essential part of the making of modern France. * W. Brian Newsome, Elizabethtown College

About Nicole C. Rudolph

Nicole C. Rudolph is Academic Director of the Honors College at Adelphi University in New York, where she is an Associate Professor in the Departments of History and of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She also serves on the Editorial Board of French Politics, Culture & Society.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Modern Homes for a Modern Nation

Chapter 1. Building Homes, Building a Nation: State Experiments in Modern Living, 1945-1952
Chapter 2. Designing for the Classless Society: Modernist Architects and the Art of Living
Chapter 3. The Salon des Arts Menagers: Teaching Women How to Make the Modern Home

Part II: Mass Homes for a Changing Society

Chapter 4. Housing for the Greatest Number: The Housing Crisis and the Cellule d'Habitation, 1953-1958
Chapter 5. Who is the Author of a Dwelling? From User to Inhabitant, 1959-1961
Chapter 6. Beyond the Functionalist Cell to the Urban Fabric, 1966-1973

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Additional information

NLS9781789208047
9781789208047
1789208041
At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort by Nicole C. Rudolph
New
Paperback
Berghahn Books
2020-04-17
272
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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