Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Ebook305 pages6 hours
Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
An important part of the New Deal, the Modernization Credit Plan helped transform urban business districts and small-town commercial strips across 1930s America, but it has since been almost completely forgotten. In Modernizing Main Street, Gabrielle Esperdy uncovers the cultural history of the hundreds of thousands of modernized storefronts that resulted from the little-known federal provision that made billions of dollars available to shop owners who wanted to update their facades.
Esperdy argues that these updated storefronts served a range of complex purposes, such as stimulating public consumption, extending the New Deal’s influence, reviving a stagnant construction industry, and introducing European modernist design to the everyday landscape. She goes on to show that these diverse roles are inseparable, woven together not only by the crisis of the Depression, but also by the pressures of bourgeoning consumerism. As the decade’s two major cultural forces, Esperdy concludes, consumerism and the Depression transformed the storefront from a seemingly insignificant element of the built environment into a potent site for the physical and rhetorical staging of recovery and progress.
Esperdy argues that these updated storefronts served a range of complex purposes, such as stimulating public consumption, extending the New Deal’s influence, reviving a stagnant construction industry, and introducing European modernist design to the everyday landscape. She goes on to show that these diverse roles are inseparable, woven together not only by the crisis of the Depression, but also by the pressures of bourgeoning consumerism. As the decade’s two major cultural forces, Esperdy concludes, consumerism and the Depression transformed the storefront from a seemingly insignificant element of the built environment into a potent site for the physical and rhetorical staging of recovery and progress.
Related to Modernizing Main Street
Related ebooks
Vaudeville Melodies: Popular Musicians and Mass Entertainment in American Culture, 1870–1929 Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Growing Up Bank Street: A Greenwich Village Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bowery Boys: Adventures in Old New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Newburgh: The Heart of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTouch and Go: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New York in the Sixties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Fenimore Cooper: A Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?: And 101 Other Questions About New York City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Called It Culture - The Story Of Chautauqua Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Public Library Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHighbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: Fifty Years of New York Magazine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Encyclopedia of New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modesto Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOcean City:: Volume I Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bridge and Tunnel Boys: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore It All Went Rotten: Giovanni 'Tinto' Brass, 'Swinging London' and the 60s Pop Culture Scene Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971–1983 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Enchantment of New York: 75 of Manhattan's Most Magical and Unique Attractions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 1964-1965 New York World's Fair Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRediscover the Hidden New Jersey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Distant Shores Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brief History of Bucktown: Davenport's Infamous District Transformed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Familiar Made Strange: American Icons and Artifacts after the Transnational Turn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Trips in Time and Space Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
2008: Year of Transition 0% found this document usefulThe Green Book 0% found this document useful#105 The Newsboys Strike of 1899 0% found this document usefulFilmmaker Daniel Whelan on Yiwu, a city at the core of cheap Chinese goods 0% found this document usefulCity Comforts, Revisited 0% found this document useful#219 Newsies on Strike! 0% found this document usefulThe Queer Stories of Young Bloomsbury with Nino Strachey 0% found this document usefulExploring Public-Facing Humanities: An interview with Ellen Synder-Grenier 0% found this document usefulHow Lucy Lippard and a Band of Artists Fought US Imperialism 0% found this document usefulJohn H. Johnson & Ebony Magazine 0% found this document useful1. The New Negro 0% found this document usefulWhat I Found Written in the Margin 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Artists at Work Antique TraderArticle
Artists at Work
May 19, 2021
5 min readMichael Hiltzik: Farewell To The Immense, Disappointing Newseum Los Angeles TimesArticle
Michael Hiltzik: Farewell To The Immense, Disappointing Newseum
Dec 16, 2019
6 min readSound Of Success Business Traveller Asia-Pacific EditionArticle
Sound Of Success
May 1, 2019
8 min readCarol Highsmith’s America Digital PhotographerArticle
Carol Highsmith’s America
Aug 9, 2022
7 min readThe Death of Newsweek The AtlanticArticle
The Death of Newsweek
Feb 8, 2018
5 min readOur Town: An Interview with Adam Gopnik The Paris ReviewArticle
Our Town: An Interview with Adam Gopnik
Nov 8, 2017
16 min readReviews American HistoryArticle
Reviews
May 21, 2019
9 min readThe Cockroach Decade The MillionsArticle
The Cockroach Decade
May 8, 2018
They keep coming – novels, short stories, memoirs, journals, oral histories, documentaries and feature films that feed off the decade that goes by many names. Tom Wolfe called it the “Me Decade.” Martin Amis called it the “Joke Deca
8 min readBack Story Art New ZealandArticle
Back Story
Aug 16, 2019
6 min readLooking Forward British Columbia HistoryArticle
Looking Forward
Sep 6, 2018
II am pleased to introduce Aimee Greenaway, our newest addition to British Columbia History magazine. Aimee hails from Nanaimo, and will be taking over the reins as Book Review Editor in coming months. I asked her in this column to tell us a little a
10 min readKerouac Centennial Northshore Magazine (Digital)Article
Kerouac Centennial
Apr 26, 2022
5 min readGoing For A Song Garden & GunArticle
Going For A Song
Jan 17, 2022
10 min readA Thanksgiving Like No Other: Finding Uplift In A Dark Year The Christian Science MonitorArticle
A Thanksgiving Like No Other: Finding Uplift In A Dark Year
Nov 25, 2020
11 min readMuseum On The Edge Journal of Alta CaliforniaArticle
Museum On The Edge
Sep 29, 2020
14 min readGustavo Arellano: Want To See More Latinos In Books? Start By Reading These Los Angeles TimesArticle
Gustavo Arellano: Want To See More Latinos In Books? Start By Reading These
Nov 30, 2022
4 min readThe Big Bang The RakeArticle
The Big Bang
Apr 5, 2019
11 min readAs Memories Of A Chicago Nightclub Echo, A Johnny Carson Book Is Set To Arrive Chicago TribuneArticle
As Memories Of A Chicago Nightclub Echo, A Johnny Carson Book Is Set To Arrive
Apr 10, 2024
3 min readHow a Walmart Heir’s Arkansas Museum Became a Soldier in The Culture Wars NewsweekArticle
How a Walmart Heir’s Arkansas Museum Became a Soldier in The Culture Wars
Jul 23, 2021
8 min readCover Story American HistoryArticle
Cover Story
Jun 29, 2021
8 min readThe Weird Beauty of Suburbia ReasonArticle
The Weird Beauty of Suburbia
Sep 18, 2020
5 min readHow a Walmart Heir’s Arkansas Museum Became a Soldier in The Culture Wars Newsweek InternationalArticle
How a Walmart Heir’s Arkansas Museum Became a Soldier in The Culture Wars
Jul 23, 2021
8 min readHow Writer’s Digest Began Writer's DigestArticle
How Writer’s Digest Began
Nov 2, 2020
It was post-World War I and the U.S. was in a mood to celebrate her newly found muscle on the world’s battlefields. Everyone boasted, and we all wanted to tell the world “how we did it!” But the telling required words … and printing … and paper. In t
3 min readClaes Oldenburg, Who Made Art Of Massive Size And Style, Spent His Formative Years In Chicago Chicago TribuneArticle
Claes Oldenburg, Who Made Art Of Massive Size And Style, Spent His Formative Years In Chicago
Jul 27, 2022
3 min readLet’s Waltz, Boys! Texas Highways MagazineArticle
Let’s Waltz, Boys!
Jul 16, 2019
9 min readBank Notes Reveal Santa’s History Banknote ReporterArticle
Bank Notes Reveal Santa’s History
Dec 2, 2019
3 min readHow A River Town Relocated, With Climate Lessons For Today The Christian Science MonitorArticle
How A River Town Relocated, With Climate Lessons For Today
Jul 15, 2021
6 min readStaten Isl And National Geographic Traveller (UK)Article
Staten Isl And
Nov 3, 2022
3 min readOld School's New Cool Robb ReportArticle
Old School's New Cool
Sep 6, 2022
13 min readGraydon Carter and Film Festivals: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing The AtlanticArticle
Graydon Carter and Film Festivals: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing
Sep 9, 2017
2 min readThe Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret The AtlanticArticle
The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret
Feb 21, 2021
5 min read
Reviews for Modernizing Main Street
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Modernizing Main Street - Gabrielle Esperdy
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1