“Giving to the World a Demonstration”

Abstract

In “Giving to the World a Demonstration”: U.S. Housing Aid to Greece, 1947–51, Konstantina Kalfa presents the unexplored history of U.S. housing aid provided to Greece as part of the Truman Doctrine as well as the later Marshall Plan. The article focuses on the emergence of a self-sheltering discourse as an important factor in Greece's postwar development, examining numerous official documents and considering the roles of multiple actors, including two prominent postwar figures: the influential U.S. housing expert Jacob Crane and the Greek architect and planner Constantinos Doxiadis. As the first large-scale experiment of its kind, the Greek scheme invoked ideologies of self-effort and national pride. These ideologies were critical for the country's modernization in the context of emerging Cold War politics, and they also helped to establish the value of self-help as an international aid strategy.