Gwendolyn Wright

Moralism and the Model Home: Domestic Architecture and Cultural Conflict in Chicago, 1873-1913

ISBN 978-0226908359
University of Chicago Press
1980; ppbk.ed., 1985
Architectural History

This book explores competing aspirations among the multiple groups who transformed American domestic architecture at the end of the 19th century, juxtaposing architects, builders, building unions, feminists and other social reformers. Beneath the visible change from a highly ornamented 'Victorian' facade to a more restrained 'modern' dwelling was a shift from popular participation to professional control over residential settings that would affect major architects like Frank Lloyd Wright as well as more anonymous designers, builders, production companies, popular media, and the larger culture, both local and national.

Awards
Runner-up for the Merle Curti Prize in American Cultural History

Selected Review Quotes
'An excellent account of a time and place crucial to the understanding of the American home [and] a reform movement of almost unprecedented scope and effect.'
   Martin Filler, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

'A very good example of the insights which feminist history has contributed to housing history.'
   Robert Gutman, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

'Wright has discovered and clarified an important debate and given us a considerable achievement.'
   Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Journal of American History

'No brief summary can do justice to the richness and range of this book, . . . an impressive achievement.'
   Edward Kantowicz, Canadian Journal of History