Home: The Why behind the Way We Live

In this course we will examine the development of numerous housing types in America (with references to Europe). The prevalence of the single-family home today and its importance as the symbol of the "American dream" was never a forgone conclusion. In fact, the American home has been the focus of and battleground for: cooperative movements, feminism, municipal socialism, benevolent capitalism, as well as government interventions on a national scale. Therefore, the class will examine texts and visual material that introduce the numerous debates related to the form the American home should take.