At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort
ISBN: 9781782385882
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Berghahn Books
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter



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.


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.

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.

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