{"product_id":"modernizing-main-street-architecture-and-consumer-culture-in-the-new-deal-center-books-on-american-places-hardcover-9780226218007","title":"Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal (Center Books on American Places (Hardcover))","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn important part of the New Deal  the Modernization Credit Plan helped transform urban business districts and small-town commercial strips across 1930s America  but it has since been almost completely forgotten. In Modernizing Main Street  Gabrielle Esperdy uncovers the cultural history of the hundreds of thousands of modernized storefronts that resulted from the little-known federal provision that made billions of dollars available to shop owners who wanted to update their facades.  Esperdy argues that these updated storefronts served a range of complex purposes  such as stimulating public consumption  extending the New Deals influence  reviving a stagnant construction industry  and introducing European modernist design to the everyday landscape. She goes on to show that these diverse roles are inseparable  woven together not only by the crisis of the Depression  but also by the pressures of bourgeoning consumerism. As the decades two major cultural forces  Esperdy concludes  consumerism and the Depression transformed the storefront from a seemingly insignificant element of the built environment into a potent site for the physical and rhetorical staging of recovery and progress.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45666350989365,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226218007","price":98.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226218007.jpg?v=1782429331","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/modernizing-main-street-architecture-and-consumer-culture-in-the-new-deal-center-books-on-american-places-hardcover-9780226218007","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}