Atomic Home: A Guided Tour of the American Dream

by Whitney Matheson

From the glory days of linoleum and wood paneling to innovations in dishwashers, ovens, and washing machines, ATOMIC A GUIDED TOUR OF THE AMERICAN DREAM remembers the fads, fashions, and inventions of the postwar American dream home. With the war over, soldiers returned home to an unprecedented time of prosperity; the family home, with its white picket fence, became the status quo. Suburbs boomed and keeping up with the Joneses became a way of life for wives and weekend home-improvement warriors. Brimming with vintage illustrated advertisements depicting the "latest" in furniture, bathroom designs, and much more, ATOMIC HOME offers cultural commentary and design inspirations for an era that defined the modern family dwelling.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a neat little coffee table book to look at old advertisements. My problem was the text is largely completely random and unrelated to what's on the page. The blurb will be about some piece of furniture or some new thing, and the images will be something totally different. Bizarre.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly entertaining, but not terribly much focus throughout. It would've been nice if the repros/format were bigger so we could read all of the ads, and the "captions" (or sidebar-style quotes) didn't go with the pics, which seemed a bit confusing (and occasionally rather frustrating). Two thoughts remain: 1) they seemed to like a lot of clashing colors back then (I hadn't realized how colorful the 50's was, stylistically speaking); and 2) don't think I've ever seen that many grinning people in one book!

[Michael Rehberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice pictures, fun ads. Unfortunately the captions were random trivia and gave no story behind the photos, products or places.