Populuxe: The Look and Life of America in the '50s and '60s, from Tailfins and TV Dinners to Barbie Dolls and Fallout Shelters

by Thomas Hine

"Populuxe" - populism, popularity and luxury is the word coined by the author to express the atmosphere of American society during the decade 1954-1964.The book examines the new luxury products created at this time and the lifestyle they represent, so giving a tour of this era when the United States had a booming economy and was virtually unchallenged as a world power.It discusses the new world of mass suburbia where there was always a hope of being able to move up the ladder to something better and looks at the many new things there were to buy such as electric lawn mowers, washing machines, a charcoal grill and televisions. This was the push-button age when the flick of a finger promised the end of domestic drudgery and was also described as the Jet Age when cars sprout ed tail-fins.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art, Sociology, Design, American History, Americana

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Thomas Hine is a writer on history, culture and design. He is the author of five books, and he contributes frequently to magazines, including The Magazine Antiques, Philadelphia Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Martha Stewart Living, Architectural Record and others. He is a senior contributing writer to Home Miami and Home Fort Lauderdale.

He has been praised in the New Yorker by John Updike for his "mischievously alert sensibility, and was recently cited by House & Garden as "America's sharpest design critic." Populuxe--a word he coined as the title of his first book to describe the styles and enthusiasms of post-World War II America, has entered the language and is now included in the American Heritage and Random House dictionaries.

From 1973 until 1996, he was the architecture and design critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1977 and 1978, he was a Ford Foundation fellow, traveling in Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union and elsewhere to study the impact of rapid political change on architecture and planning.

Recently, he was guest curator of Promises of Paradise, a groundbreaking exhibition on the design of post World War II South Florida. He also was an adviser to the Orange County Museum Art on its 2007-2009 touring exhibition Birth of the Cool and wrote an essay for its highly-praised, award-winning catalogue. Earlier, he was guest curator for the Denver Art Museum touring exhibition US Design: 1975-2000. He also wrote one of the essays in its catalogue. He worked with the National Building Museum on On the Job, a 2001 exhibition and catalogue about offices, and with the Fairmount Park Art Association on its New Landmarks exhibition and catalogue, which explored a new approach to public art. In 1989, he was an advisor to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, on its exhibition, Landmarks for Modern Living, about the post World War II Case Study House program, and he contributed an essay to its prize-winning catalogue.

Other books to which he has contributed chapters include Volare(1999) and Material Man (2000),both created by the Fashion Engineering Unit of Florence Italy, and Life: A Century of Change (2000).

He has taught courses at both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. He has lectured at Yale, Syracuse, Drexel, and Michigan State Universities; museums including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Worcester Art Museum; and to professional and trade associations including the American Institute of Architects and the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.

He was born in suburban Boston, grew up in Connecticut, and graduated from Yale. He has lived in Philadelphia since 1970.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of people would enjoy this one, not just historians. This is almost a memoir/history; Hine coined the term "populuxe" to describe the artifacts of suburban America in the 50s and early 60s, and a lot of the time he seems to have just included the elements of suburban culture that he found most interesting. His main thesis is that the period was not "normal," but rather exceptional- a "celebration of material prosperity." Hine obviously loves the tailfin era of the American car, two-toned refrigerators, split-level ranches, push-button convenience, and onion dip. He loves that cars evoked rockets, and vacuum cleaners evoked satellites. He wants to share these wonders with you, the reader.
So much of this book made me think of my grandparents' house. (That wood paneling in the basement! The cheesy faux-colonial lamps!) I loved the photographs and reproduced ads. This is a little denser than the average coffee-table book, but I think almost anyone would love to flip through this just for the illustrations.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to note that Hines spends much more time on things that don't interest me (cars) and little to no time on the things that do. There was little here on fashion or food (and I don't remember anything about the Barbie--odd that it is part of the title), but tons on cars and famous architects of the time. I loved all the pictures, but I would have liked more, especially pictures of cars or buildings he was discussing so I would have a better frame of reference. This time period fascinates me, so it was odd that this book really didn't.

[Sarahc Caflisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just received the out-of-print hardcover edition yesterday that my husband bought me for Valentine's day. I am so excited to start this, but unfortunately I have a superexciting paper to finish first.

[Dave LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down, the BEST book I've ever read on design in the MCM period. And I've read dozens and dozens.

[Bill]

I really enjoyed this book in the '80s when it came out. It surveys all the great and kitchy styles of the 1950s that bled into the early 1960s - the color palettes (we call retro now); the finned cars, the mid-century modern furniture, the space-themed motels with their stairways to nowhere, the wacky appliances and commercials whacking the early stage baby boomers in the head. The original hardcover is also beautifully designed with endpapers that look like 1950s wallpaper and the cloth cover is that ubiquitous turquoise of the time.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nostalgia trip with a little bit of cultural commentary mixed in. The pictures are a lot of fun, but for me it's mostly a down size coffee table book. Hine introduced the title term to talk about the combination of populist appeal and luxury in the consumer products of the 1954-64 time period. His emphasis is almost entirely on the 50s and I wished there'd been more attention paid to specific dates so you could get a sense of how things changed. As it is, it feels a bit static and I wasn't really convinced that it makes sense to talk about this as a unified period in consumer life.

[Caryn Sobel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting info, well-presented.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't read but just looked through at the pictures.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent look at pop culture of the 50's and early 60s. Great photos and illustrations.

[Baley Nye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some people may not find the subject matter that interesting but Hine does a good job at captivating the reader through his storytelling and strong voice.

[Tim Lapetino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a thoughtful and detailed look at what Thomas Hine calls the Populuxe Era--the midcentury pop cultural period from 1953-1964. Hine details how America's evolution into a postwar consumer culture impacted design and style in everything from automobiles to Formica. Thoughtful and balanced representation, though a bit heavy in automotive. But it was very well-considered, especially its approach that didn't fetishize the design of and looks of that era.

Most interesting was that this book was written in 1986--more than thirty years ago--and it's fascinating to read a legitimately historical take on another historical era. Not yet present in Hine's account is the contemporary assumption that Modernism has won, and that midcentury and Swiss design are pure, timeless approaches.

So much to think about with this great book for those interested in design and cultural study of that era.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hine argues that 1954 - '64 saw a sea change in design for buildings, appliances and cars, among other things. America was racing towards the future; the good life was financially available to growing numbers of people; countless products borrowed imagery from atomic energy, jet planes, space satellites and other symbols of the exciting future. Sales also played a role: by 1954, pretty much everyone who wanted a car owned one, so playing up designs and styles encouraged people to trade in and buy new ones.
This is an interesting look at designs of the era, though it badly needs more photographs. A broader scope would have helped too — he mentions Barbie in the title but I'd have expected more coverage (and of toys in general). This didn't work as well for me as Hine's 1970s retrospective, The Grand Funk, but it was worth reading.

[Maya Brindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutley amazing

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, I wasn't alive in the 50's or early 60's, but when I think back to that time I imagine it as being very materialistic and lonely. You know, the age of "keeping up with the Jones's." As Thomas Hine points out, people had never lived in suburbs before, and they weren't sure how to do it, so they looked to their neighbors to signal to them what to do. The author gives what feels to me like an honest (but forgiving) account that doesn't make it seem utterly depressing.

Hines spends a lot of time talking about the contrast between how people were terrified of the nuclear bomb, but were also hopeful for the future. I feel like perhaps that's a more accurate way to see the 50s than my bleak "everyone was secretly miserable" view. People lived in this contradictory state of hope and fear that started with the GI Bill and the end of WWII and disappeared with the assassination of Kennedy and the coming of age of the baby boomers. And it's true, you can see it in everything. So much is designed to seem futuristic and space-agey, but you also see signs of the atomic bomb all over the place. They were dreaming of flying cars and fully automatic houses while building bomb shelters and hiding under tables.

Thanks to the cold war, the fear of the bomb didn't go away. We only got a brief break from the climate of fear from 1991-2001. But it's a bummer we lost that hope for the future somewhere in the early 60s and stopped imaging where technology could take us. My imagination doesn't take me too far when I imagine technology 10 years from now, but they were basically imagining the Jetsons. I envy that.

As for criticisms, I am kind of annoyed that Hine seems to be trying really hard to coin the phrase "Populuxe" which as far as I'm aware didn't really take off. There are also points at which this book gets really repetitive and feels a bit rambly. I'm not going to lie: I fell asleep twice trying to finish this book.

But I still liked it! I desperately wish I could reformat it to make the pictures and the text line up in a way that makes sense to me, but I definitely thought it was worth the read.