Review: Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design

Abstract

Book Review| March 01 2023 Review: Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design Kristina Wilson Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2021, 264 pp., 74 color and 80 b/w illus. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 9780691208190 Dianne Harris Dianne Harris University of Washington Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2023) 82 (1): 91–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2023.82.1.91 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Dianne Harris; Review: Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 March 2023; 82 (1): 91–93. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2023.82.1.91 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search Although scholars in the humanities and social science fields have for decades examined race, class, and gender in a broad range of contexts, and geographers and urban historians began to study the spatial implications of race even earlier, the vast majority of art and architectural historians have taken much longer to put race at the heart of their analyses. Fortunately, we are witnessing the emergence of publications that are serving as a corrective and beginning to shift the field in important ways. Kristina Wilson’s Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body contributes to this literature with a particular intervention in the critical studies of whiteness, focusing on the material culture of midcentury domesticity. Whiteness studies are typically political projects at their core; namely, they aim to dismantle white supremacy by shedding light on its structures, systems, and modes of operation. As a branch of critical race theory, studies of whiteness take... You do not currently have access to this content.