World War II and the American Dream: How Wartime Building Changed - Hardcover

During the war, perhaps one fifth of the populace moved someplace else because of their roles as soldiers or defense plant workers. Such movement necessitated, and touched off, a gigantic building boom. The artifacts, from the humble and ugly Quonset hut to sleeker, modernist structures, to entire cities, tangibly testify to the war's domestic impact. This profusely illustrated retrospective coincides with a current exhibit at Washington's National Building Museum and displays the important facets of a stupendous burst of construction. Six scholars address the major aspects of the work, beginning with MOMA's Peter Reed, who describes how renowned designers--Wright, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe--lent their talents to dignifying even the rudest hovels. New materials--plastics and the like--attract another writer. Margaret Crawford prepared a chapter on workers' housing for women and for blacks that the government set up. The volume concludes with discussions on the impact of bigger factories and office buildings (the Pentagon), considered by the author the insidious genesis of the military-industrial complex. This collection, though specialized, usefully revisits an overlooked aspect of the war. Gilbert Taylor