
Detached America
Building Houses in Postwar Suburbia
James A. Jacobs(Author)
University of Virginia Press
Published on 30. September 2015
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-8139-3761-8 (ISBN)
Description
During the quarter century between 1945 and 1970, Americans crafted a new manner of living that shaped and reshaped how residential builders designed and marketed millions of detached single-family suburban houses. The modest two- and three-bedroom houses built immediately following the war gave way to larger and more sophisticated houses shaped by casual living, which stressed a family's easy sociability and material comfort and were a major element in the cohesion of a greatly expanded middle class. These dwellings became the basic building blocks of explosive suburban growth during the postwar period, luring families to the metropolitan periphery from both crowded urban centers and the rural hinterlands.
Detached America is the first book with a national scope to explore the design and marketing of postwar houses. James A. Jacobs shows how these houses physically document national trends in domestic space and record a remarkably uniform spatial evolution that can be traced throughout the country. Favorable government policies, along with such widely available print media as trade journals, home design magazines, and newspapers, permitted builders to establish a strong national presence and to make a more standardized product available to prospective buyers everywhere. This vast and long-lived collaboration between government and business?fueled by millions of homeowners?established the financial mechanisms, consumer framework, domestic ideologies, and architectural precedents that permanently altered the geographic and demographic landscape of the nation.
Detached America is the first book with a national scope to explore the design and marketing of postwar houses. James A. Jacobs shows how these houses physically document national trends in domestic space and record a remarkably uniform spatial evolution that can be traced throughout the country. Favorable government policies, along with such widely available print media as trade journals, home design magazines, and newspapers, permitted builders to establish a strong national presence and to make a more standardized product available to prospective buyers everywhere. This vast and long-lived collaboration between government and business?fueled by millions of homeowners?established the financial mechanisms, consumer framework, domestic ideologies, and architectural precedents that permanently altered the geographic and demographic landscape of the nation.
Reviews / Votes
"Detached America examines closely the issues of housing that most adults are familiar with-the ranch house, the split level, informal living-but for the first time, these architectural forms are investigated in detail and placed within a rich social and cultural history." -Andrew Dolkart, Columbia UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Charlottesville
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
61 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 179 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
708 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8139-3761-8 (9780813937618)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2015
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
from
€111.99
Available for download
Person
James A. Jacobs is a historian for the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Historic Landmarks Program of the National Park Service.