“A Way of Living” Representations of Homeownership in LIFE Magazine
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“A Way of Living” Representations of Homeownership in LIFE Magazine Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn vorgelegt von Fenna Wächter aus Bonn Bonn 2017 Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission: Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich, Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie (Vorsitzende) Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke, Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie (Betreuerin und Gutachterin) PD Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche, Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie (Gutachterin) Prof. Dr. Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie (Weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 24.05.2017 ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 1 (1936 – 1941): “A Failure, A Problem, A Potential Boon and Boom” – Home Construction and Homeownership after the Great Depression ................................................................................. 12 Public vs. Private Housing Programs ............................................................................................. 15 “Electrified to the hilt” .................................................................................................................. 23 Houses for “Modern Living” .......................................................................................................... 29 Homeowners in Rural Areas .......................................................................................................... 38 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 2: “Not the Least Part of the Battle” - Homeownership throughout and after World War II (1942-1947) ........................................................................................................................................... 45 The OWI Poster Campaign and LIFE .............................................................................................. 46 Home Repairs to Boost Morale ..................................................................................................... 57 Communal Strife ............................................................................................................................ 61 Searching “Security and Order in the Postwar World” ................................................................. 68 “The Great Housing Shortage” and Veteran Homeowners ........................................................... 75 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 3: “It is a way of living that a man and a woman buy when they buy a house” – Differentiation among Homeowners (1948-1958) ................................................................................ 85 LIFE’s Roundtable on Housing ....................................................................................................... 88 Lower to Middle to Upper Class Homes: W. Lloyd Warner in LIFE ............................................... 92 “More Livable Homes” ................................................................................................................ 107 Housing Alternatives for “The Common Man”............................................................................ 114 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter 4: “[To] live together in peace – possibly even friendship “ – Segregation among Homeowners (1959-1965) .................................................................................................................. 121 Elderly Homeowners ................................................................................................................... 124 African Americans in White Middle-Class Suburbia .................................................................... 130 Themed Neighborhoods and Vacation Homes ........................................................................... 140 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................................... 146 Chapter 5: A “Castle in the Woods” and a “Fortress by the Sea” – Seclusion, Nature and Homeownership (1965-1972) ............................................................................................................. 150 The continued quest for minority homeownership .................................................................... 153 “Ideas in Houses” ........................................................................................................................ 157 iii Housing for the Poor ................................................................................................................... 166 High Taxes and the Economic Downturn of the 1970s: Homeowners Reach Financial Limits ... 169 A Return to Farmers: Owners & Tenants .................................................................................... 173 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................................... 176 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 178 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 184 iv “A Way of Living”: Representations of Homeownership in LIFE Magazine Acknowledgments This dissertation could not have been completed without the support and encouragement from a number of people. This holds especially true for my advisor Prof. Sabine Sielke whose patience and seemingly unwavering belief in this project as well as her expertise and highly valuable criticism were crucial throughout these years. Furthermore, I am grateful to my parents for their moral support and understanding throughout this process and to family and friends who stuck with me even through the bad times. Julia – thank you for your encouragement and for sharing your own experiences and knowledge with me. I want to thank Ron for sacrificing so much of his already scarce time to provide me with invaluable support. To Henrik, especially, I feel indebted for keeping the outside world at bay and the household afloat and for keeping his temper even when I lost mine. 1 “A Way of Living”: Representations of Homeownership in LIFE Magazine Introduction “It is a way of living that a man and woman buy when they buy a house.” (LIFE Magazine, January 31, 1949) Throughout U.S.-American history, homeowners have held a special, exalted position within society, based on ideological constructions of homeownership.1 An early example of these idealized representations of homeownership is Thomas Jefferson’s conception of the yeoman farmer which characterized him as “independent and responsible, economically productive, and morally respectable” (De Neufville & Barton 186). Representations of homeownership are not only praised within presidential rhetoric such as Jefferson’s, but also play a crucial role within the overall Cultural Imaginary of U.S. society.2 When traveling the United States in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville observed ownership projections in the public mind. According to Tocqueville, due to the possibility of ownership Americans had “acquired or retained sufficient education and fortune to satisfy their own wants. They owe nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always considering themselves as standing alone, and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands” (620). Note Tocqueville’s choice of wording: he did not say that property owners in fact have their whole destiny in their own hands. Rather, “they are apt to imagine” that they do, which suggests that the way in which these property owners see themselves – or are projected by others – may well diverge from their actual situation. Jefferson’s and Tocqueville’s statements exemplify an important aspect of homeownership ideology: homeownership is presented (and often perceived) as a generally laudable and desirable way of living.3 The above citation from LIFE Magazine also makes just this point. It stems from the article “A Round Table on Housing” which suggests to the 1 I use the term ideology not in its political sense, but rather as designating a system of representations, perceptions and images. Such representations are generally based on a set of assumptions, and they define parameters of the real and the self (in Althusser’s terms: “a social subject’s ‘lived’ relation to the real”). By appealing to a person’s unconscious fears, desires and rational interests, it influences the way in which that person perceives its social reality and its place within it (Kavannagh). 2 For an informative and concise discussion of the concept of “Cultural Imaginary”, see Schwab: