The corporate estate in the USA, 1954–64: ‘Thoroughly modern in concept, but … down to earth and rugged’

Abstract

By the late 1940S the management of American corporations looked forward to an era of remarkable growth. The USA was the only intact advanced industrial economy in the world; after almost two decades of depression and war, an expansive, even heady, economic optimism buoyed the leaders of American corporations — an expectancy that would prove entirely justified. The confident economic scenario matched an absolute political surety engendered by the recent military victory and the hegemonic struggle of the Cold War. This post-war milieu saw two intersecting phenomena, one in city building, the other in corporate management, that resulted in the creation of the corporate estate, the exclusive suburban enclaves of corporate management.