Signs of Americanization in Italian Domestic Life: Italy`s Postwar

@ 2005 SAGEPublications,
London,ThousandOaks,CAand
of Contemporary
Journal
History
Copyright
New Delhi,Vol40(2),317-340. ISSN0022-0094.
DOI:10. 177/0022009405051555
Paolo Scrivano
Signs of Americanization in Italian Domestic
Life: Italy's Postwar Conversion to
Consumerism
Americanizationis usually consideredthe majorfactor in Italy'stransformation afterthe secondworld war. So much so that the influenceof the USA on
Italiansociety and economy has long been taken for granted.However,these
assumptionsare based upon a misleadingaccountof the relationshipbetween
the two countries. A multifacetedprocess characterizedby contradictory
meanings,Americanizationtook variousformsand developedin highlydifferentiated ways.' Indeed, it is difficultto gauge the extent to which American
models were ever simply adopted:closer analysisrevealsthat such influences
were subjectto repeatedmisinterpretation,negotiation and even resistance.
This was particularlytrue in the case of Italy. Initially reluctantto follow
Americanexamples,Italiansocietysoon demonstratedan unusualcapacityfor
remakingand hybridizingimportedtransatlanticmodels. Nowhere was this
more evidentthan in the domesticsphere,which servedas a centraltargetof
the broaderculturalcampaignto startafreshafter 1945. How and why home
life emergedas the focus of Italy'sfebrilepostwarmodernizationdriveis the
subjectof this article.
In the 15 years following the end of the war, Italy underwentdramatic
social and economicchange. From a postwar condition in which more than
two-thirdsof its industrialcapacityand almost 80 per cent of its infrastructure
were in need of repair or replacement,Italy managedto become a regional
economic power. During the postwar reconstruction,the country entereda
new stage of developmentthat launchedan unprecedentedprocessof modernAED:ArchivioEntiDisciolti,Ministerodel Tesoro,Rome;AET:ArchivioEmilio
Abbreviations:
AventinoTarpino,Ivrea;ASF:ArchivioStoricoFiat, Turin;ASIL:ArchivioStoricodell'Istituto
Luce,Rome;MCP:MarjoryCollinsPapers,SchlesingerLibrary,RadcliffeInstitutefor Advanced
Study, HarvardUniversity,Cambridge,MA; NARA: National Archivesand RecordsAdministration,CollegePark,MD.
I shouldliketo thankSolmazEshraghifor the helpin collectingpartof the informationusedin
the preparationof this article.
amountsto countlesspublications.Foran overview
1 The currentliteratureon Americanization
of recent developmentsin the debate on this subjectcf.: Rob Kroes, 'AmericanEmpireand
CulturalImperialism.A View from the ReceivingEnd' in Thomas Bender(ed.), Rethinking
AmericanHistoryin a GlobalAge (Berkeley,CA, Los Angeles,CA and London2002), 295-311;
Alan Brinkley,'The Concept of an AmericanCentury'in R. LaurenceMoore and Maurizio
Vaudagna (eds), The American Century in Europe (Ithaca, NY 2003), 7-21.
318
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
ization and preparedthe way for what in the 1960s cameto be calledthe 'economic boom'.2Furthermore,this periodwas markedby the dramaticpassage
from a traditionalrural society to a prevalentlyurban one. These changes,
however, affectedeach region of the country in differentways. 'The Italian
economy is characterizedby the poverty of its endowment of material
resourcesand by the rapidrate of populationgrowth,particularlyin the rural
South.'3VisitingItaly betweenthe end of the 1940s and the beginningof the
1950s as part of governmentalmissions,Americanofficersfrequentlyreceived
warningsof this kind as a sort of informativeintroduction.The standardof
living, of course, reflectedthe social and economic condition of Italy at the
time, althoughit might vary in relationto many factors.In the industrialized
areasof the north-west,militaryoperationshad been in largepart responsible
for the postwar situation,while in the rest of the countrythe state of poverty
had for the most partbeeninheritedfromthe pre-waryearsand aggravatedby
the conflict.Thingswere worse in the south than anywhereelse. An American
officer sent to Sicily in 1950 by the Economic CooperationAdministration
(ECA) to estimate the island's potential as a destination for American
tourists condensedhis impressionin just three words: 'Dirt, Dishonestyand
Dysentery'.4
The southerncity of Matera,in the Basilicataregion,epitomizedthe persistent state of perceivedbackwardnessthat characterizedlarge areas of the
country. It also representeda case of exceptionaldestitution.There, 15,000
people (almostthe majorityof the population)still occupiedprimitivehouses
that had been fabricatedby digging sections out of the hillside of the town.
The buildersof the sassi - as the shelterswere and are still known - also
made use of locally-excavatedmaterialto erect their homes. Needless to say,
the inhabitantsof thesecaveslived in precarioushygienicconditions.Forthese
reasons, Matera came to symbolizethe state of indigencein southernItaly,
and servedas a paradigmfor the meridionalismo,the study of the social, economic and culturalproblemsof the south. The public discussionof the living
conditions of the sassi occupants, together with the outcry this discovery
generated,was by no means limitedto Italianpublic opinion.sNot only was
2 The years of the 'economic boom' (or miracolo economico) in Italy are usually identified with
the period 1958-63. Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy. Society and Politics
1943-1988 (London 1990), 210-53 (chap. 7: 'The "Economic Miracle", Rural Exodus and Social
Transformation, 1958-63'); G. Crainz, Storia del miracolo italiano. Cultura, identiti, trasformazioni fra anni 50 e 60 (Rome 1996), 53-81. More precisely, this chronology can be considered
correct if it refers to some areas of the country, notably the regions of the north-west.
3 'Italy - Background Information', NARA, RG 59, General Records of the Department of
State, Records of the Office of Western European Affairs Relating to Italy, 1943-51, box 2,
undated.
4 Letter from Tom Ford to Frank Gervasi, MCP, 85-M 201, Carton 2, 21:6:6, 16 October
1950.
5 The 'scandal' of the sassi prompted Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi to ask for a quick recovery intervention during the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 28 July 1950: cf. Marida
Talamona, 'Dieci anni di politica dell'Unrra Casas: dalle case ai senzatetto ai borghi rurali nel
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
319
FIGURE 1
Matera, the 'Sassi', 1950
Collins,
Marjory
[Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA]
the Matera case analysed by renowned foreign scholars, but the shocking
images of the sassi were broadcast worldwide through several photoreportages6(Fig. 1).
The AmericanphotographerMarjoryCollins visited Matera in 1950 and
documentedlife inside the sassi with dozens of black and white shots.7Later
Mezzogiorno d'Italia (1945-1955). Il ruolo di Adriano Olivetti' in Carlo Olmo (ed.), Costruire la
citta dell'uomo. Adriano Olivetti e l'urbanistica (Turin 2001), 173-204. See also Francesco Nitti,
Matera.Unacittiidel Sud(Rome1956).
6 Riccardo Musatti, Federico G. Friedmann and Giuseppe Isnardi, Matera. Saggi introduttivi
(Rome 1956). One of the three authors of this survey of Matera was the philosopher and sociologist Friedrich Friedmann, who had emigrated from Germany to the USA before the second world
war to escape antisemitic persecution.
7 MCP, 90-M 159, Carton 1, 10:9:1 v'.
320
of Contemporary
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publishedin the magazineComunitaias illustrationsfor an article by writer
and social activist Riccardo Musatti, her photographsportrayed the raw
immediacyof the povertyfaced by the inhabitantsof Matera.8Lackingrunning water, a sewagesystemand electricity,the occupantsof the sassi lived in
dereliction,in rooms that had no direct ventilationor illumination.Animals
and people sharedthe same spaces and the furniturewas reducedto a few
pieces:needlessto say, therewas no trace of domesticappliances.If the sassi
representedthe extreme pole of destitution experiencedby the population
of Italy's south, in many others areas of the country the situation was not
altogetherbetter.The newsreelsof the 'SettimanaIncom'- the weekly magazine projectedin cinemasduringthe intermission- frequentlychronicleda
domesticlandscapepunctuatedby povertyand scarcityof resources.'
Nevertheless,the circulationof this imagerywas hardlythe only element
that inspiredthe dramatictransformationof Italian society in the years following the secondworld war. Eventhoughthey seizedthe public imagination
in Italyand abroad,suchimagesof destitutionand impoverishmentwere more
commonly perceivedas a symbol of backwardnessthan as a precisedescription of the country'smoregeneralsocial condition.If they certainlyhelpedto
underscorethe urgencyfor intervention- for example,in inspiringa whole
stream of sociological and ethnographicstudies on the subject - they did
not play a directrole in shapingthe modernizationdrive.'0Povertyremained
firmly rooted in many areas of the south (and of the north-east),while the
urbancentresof the north-westexperiencedunprecedentedeconomicgrowth.
After the end of the war and duringthe years of the 'boom', the south continued to feed the north'sneed for a less qualified(and less well-paid)workforce, if at an acceleratedpace."
By 1945, economicindicatorsleft no doubt about the extent of the Italian
problem:industrialoutput stood at 29 per cent of pre-warlevels while agriculture remained at 63.3 per cent.12The situation became significantly
differentin the following 15 years. In the period between 1953 and 1960,
8 RiccardoMusatti,'Viaggioai "Sassi"di Matera',Comunitiz,4, 9 (September-October
1950),
40-3.
9 See, for example,'LaSettimanaIncom263. Peri senzatetto. IIVillaggioS. Francesco',ASIL,
March1949; 'La SettimanaIncom671. La dignitadi una casa',ibid.,November1951.
10 A briefaccountof the postwaranalysisof the socialproblemsof Italy'ssouth by some social
scientists (in particularthe Neapolitan anthropologistErnesto de Martino) is contained in
in SouthernItaly?'
AnnalisaDi Nola, 'How CriticalWas De Martino's"CriticalEthnocentrism"
in Jane Schneider (ed.), Italy's 'Southern Question'. Orientalism in One Country (Oxford and
New York 1998), 157-75.
11 AntonioGramsci'swidely-analysed
and discussednotebooks19 and22 remainthe principal
sourcefor an ideologicalinterpretationof the originsof and reasonsfor the unbalancedrelationship betweennorth and south: Antonio Gramsci,Quaderno19. RisorgimentoItaliano (Turin
1975) and idem, Quaderno 22. Americanismo e fordismo (Turin 1978). On Gramsci's view of the
south, see Nadia Urbinati,'The Southsof Antonio Gramsciand the Conceptof Hegemony'in
Schneider, Italy's 'Southern Question', op. cit., 135-56.
12 John Lamberton Harper, America and the Reconstruction of Italy, 1945-1948 (Cambridge,
Londonand New York 1986), 1-5.
to Consumerism
Conversion
Scrivano:
Postwar
Italy's
321
industrialproductionincreasedby 89 per cent and workers'productivityby
62 per cent. In the five years between 1958 and 1963 the gross domestic
productincreasedan averageof 6.3 percent per year (it had been 5.5 per cent
between 1951 and 1958).13These numbersreflected a general trend in the
westernworldand the expansionof internationaltrade:in Italy,the growthof
productivityand exports was largely fuelled by the availability of cheap
labour. As a matter of fact, in this period characterizedby rapid cultural
change, increasingprosperityand unprecedentedaccess to consumergoods,
the transformationdramaticallyreshapedthe country.
The social and economicchangesaffectingItalyin the first decadeafterthe
end of the secondworld war were shapedto a significantdegreeby the USA.
In Italy, as well as in other countriesincludedin the EuropeanRecoveryPlan
(ERP),US-fundedprogrammesmade a fundamentalcontributionto helping
the countryresumeindustrialproductionand reorganizeits collectiveservices
and publicadministration.However,this interventionwas not merelya matter
of injecting badly-neededfinancial resources: it was also an attempt to
influenceItaliansociety and everydaylife. Americanadministratorsand civil
servantswere often quite explicit in this regard.During a hearingbeforethe
Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate in 1953, for
example, a public affairs officer on assignmentin Italy pointed out that the
aim of Americaninterventionwas not 'to make a Little Americaof Italy'.
Nevertheless,he went on to say that '[ ... ] if the standardof living of the
Italiansis ever reallygoing to be raisedin any respectabledegree,that it can
only come about by adoptingsome [ ... ] Americanideas or ideas similarto
them'.14
Still, ideas and models importedfrom Americainitiallyhad little impacton
Italian everydaylife. This is clear in the case of housing. In fact, despitethe
intense buildingactivity in the public sector (almost always underwrittenby
Americanfunds),standardizedmodelsusuallycontinuedpre-warcustomsand
design traditions.In some ways, this was a precisepolitical strategy,one that
favoureda low-tech approachto buildingso as to maximize employment.is
The two majorbuildingprogrammesinitiatedafterthe secondworld war, the
UNRRA-CASASand INA-CASAprogrammes(both largelyfinancedby the
USA), often recycledbuildingtypes that had been developedbefore the war
and were still within Italian domestic architecturaltraditions.The frequent
13 The 1951-58 growth had been mainly due to internaldemand:Ginsborg,A Historyof
Contemporary
Italy,op. cit., 212-17.
14 'OverseasInformationPrograms.Tuesday,March 24, 1953. Statementof LloydA. Free,
PublicAffairsOfficer,AmericanEmbassy,Rome,Italy'in OverseasInformationProgramsof the
United States,Hearingsbeforea Subcommitteeof the Committeeon ForeignRelations.United
States Senate.Eighty-ThirdCongress,First Session on OverseasInformationProgramsof the
UnitedStates,Part2 (WashingtonDC 1953), 548.
15 On this subjectcf. SergioPoretti,'Le tecnicheedilizie:modelliper la ricostruzione'in Paola
Di Biagi (ed.), La grandericostruzione.II piano Ina-Casae l'Italiadegli anni cinquanta(Rome
2001), 113-27.
322
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
emphasison rurallife did not simplyresuscitatethe rhetoricof the anti-urban
policies adopted by the fascist regimein the 1930s. The rediscoveryof rural
architecturehad been a constant preoccupationof the pre-warculture:the
subjecthad been widely debatedamong professionalsin publicationssuch as
Annali dei Lavori Pubblici and Rivista di estimo agrario e genio rurale, or
duringpubliceventssuch as the exhibitionorganizedby GiuseppePaganoand
WernerDaniel at the SixthMilan Triennaleof 1936.'6
The UNRRA-CASASplan was an intensiveemergencyprogrammeinitiated
immediatelyafter the war.17The UNRRA-CASAShousing office operated
from 1947 to 1963 and was responsiblefor the constructionof more than
1000 villagesall over Italy, althoughit mainlyconcentratedon the areasthat
had been most damagedby the war. The strategyof the office focused on
building villages by assembling standard units that could be arranged in
groupingsrangingfrom three or four to as many as ten houses. The design
board of UNRRA-CASAScame to develop prototypes for standardized
houses whose almost imperceptibleelements of differentiationwere represented by the slope of the roof and other minor details.These differentsolutions were adjustedto fit the variousgeographicaland climaticconditionsof
each intendedsettlement.In this way, the UNRRA-CASASprogrammepropoundedan architecturallanguageinspiredby a genericregionalre-readingof
the local vernaculartradition"(Fig.2).
The model dwellingsproposedby UNRRA-CASASdid not offer particular
amenities.The substantialnovelty was the presenceof sanitationand small
cooking facilities inside the apartments:some villages even maintained a
common bread oven in the public square. No doubt these housing programmesnot only respondedto the urgentpostwar needs, but also served a
culturaldesirethat had evolvedlittle fromthe 1930s. In fact, a traditionalidea
of domesticitycontinuedto persist, irrespectiveof the differenteconomic or
social conditions of the diverseareas of Italy. A 1947 newsreelreportingon
the inaugurationof an UNRRA-CASASunit in Pontecorvo,in the war-torn
area of Cassino,south of Rome, gives a faithfulaccountof the generalexpectations harbouredby the Italianpublic in the ten yearsfollowing the war: 'A
16 Giuseppe Pagano and Guarniero Daniel, Architettura rurale italiana (Milan 1936).
17 The rather long acronym translates as 'United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration-Comitato Amministrativo Soccorsi ai Senzatetto' ('Administrative Committee for
Assistance to the Homeless'). The mixed use of Italian and English reveals the character of this
administrative body, an Italian committee whose task was the utilization of ERP funds; cf.
Bernardo Marotta, 'UNRRA-CASAS. Dalla ricostruzione post-bellica alla creazione dei borghi' in
Esperienze urbanistiche in Italia (Rome 1952), 110-27.
18 AED, 276 AG, Tipi Fabbricati - Legge 640 da 33B a 37B, A/245; AED, 292 A4, Planimetrie
Villaggi Legge 640 da A a F, A/238; AED, 295 AG, Tipi Fabbricati Unrra-Erpda D a 10D e Tipo
UC-2E, A/233; AED, 298 AG, Tipi Fabbricati Unrra-Erp da 19B a 23B, A/231; AED, 299 AG,
Tipi Fabbricati Unrra-Erp da 3B a 15B, A/230; AED, 304 AG, Tipi Fabbricati Unrra-Erp da A a
2B, A/2201; AED, 314 AG, Planimetrie Villaggi Unrra-Erp da G a R, A/226; AED, 315 AG,
Planimetrie Villaggi Unrra-Erp da A a F, A/227.
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
323
FIGURE2
Prototypeof UNRRA-CASAShousingunit, n.d. (butlate 1940s)
[ArchvioEntiDisciolti,Ministerodel Tesoro,Rome]
simple signature', says the commentator towards the end of the film, 'and the
father of a family returns to be the head of a house.'"
From these examples, little seemed to have changed from the 1930s. Twenty
years of dictatorship had left an ambiguous legacy. In part the modernization
drive of the postwar period was built on elements that had been common to
fascism, which had put much emphasis on the modernization of the country in
an attempt to forge consensus and legitimize its power. At the end of the war,
the confrontation with the fascist past had the effect of creating a marked
contrast between a political discourse that stressed rupture and an everyday
culture that often prized continuity. Not surprisingly, the idea of modernity
promoted after the fall of the regime was rarely seen as a quintessential 'antifascist' concept. To find elements of discontinuity between the pre- and postwar years, one must consider the initially imperceptible (but later substantial)
remaking of the concepts of private and public life. In an effort to confront
fascism's populist myth of the masses, citizenship was symbolically redefined
in terms of domesticity, in a way that signalled a shift in social life from public
to private. In this context, kitchens or living rooms increasingly took over
19 'La Settimana Incom 68: Ricostruzione: case per i senza tetto', ASIL, July 1947. Quite audaciously, the comment also adds: '[The inhabitants] cross the threshold of the beautiful, clean, and
new houses ... who knows in a year how many white ribbons [will be placed] on these doors.'
(White ribbons symbolized the presence of a new-born child.)
324
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
fromcourtyards,
streetsor piazze.20
Butthiswas not simplylimitedto northernurbanites.
Thisprivatization
of life alsoaffectedthewavesof immigrants
thatfromthe 1950sonwardmovedfromtheruralareasof the southandthe
north-eastto the'industrial
triangle'of thenorth-west.21
Theeffectsof thechangewereinitiallyhardto detect.Inthelongterm,economicdevelopment
combinedwithAmericaninfluenceleft importantmarks
on manyaspectsof everydaylife. In particular,
economicimprovement
and
Americanculturalhegemonygaveriseto a revolutionwithinthe home.It is
were
importantto note, however,that the dynamicsof the transformation
issueremainedthat of the
anythingbut linear.An especiallycontroversial
family.Familywas an importantpointof referencefor a traditionalconception of Italiansociety.As a consequence,
American
programmes
attemptedto
takeinto consideration
the possibleeffectsthatItaly'srapidtransformations
mighthave on existingsocialstructures.The institutionof the familywas
viewedas a crucialelementof socialstability.Thiswasallthemoreimportant
in a countrywhereits preservation
was passionatelychampionedby the
CatholicChurch,evenif suchdomesticideologywas oftenchallengedby leftForall thesereasons,thehomeandits inhabiwingpartiesandorganizations.
tationreceivedunusualattentionduringtheseyears.Onebrochurepublished
in 1954 by the United States InformationService(USIS)and Foreign
(FOA)officesin Romeopenlystressed'thesignifiOperationAdministration
canceof the housein the family'sandsociallife'of Italy.22
How correctwas
the Americanperceptionof Italian'sociallife'and'family'in the 1950sis of
coursedifficultto tell.It is evenharderto say for certainwhetherthesesame
authoritieswereawareof the rapidchangesaffectingItaliansociety.Whatis
of the
clear,beginningwith the 1950s, is that the traditionalconfiguration
familywaseroding;indeed,the'communitarian'
aspectsof sociallifewerethe
firstandmostaffected.Changesin the useof thedomesticspacein the 1950s
demonstrate
thattheaveragefamilyin Italywasbecoming
increasingly
private
and nuclear.23
The consequencesof this could be seen in the way the house was used and
domestic 'aesthetics'perceived. A significant change occurred around the
mid-1950s.New modelsof domesticitybeganto circulate.Forexample,the
architecturalmagazineDomus inaugurateda seriesof articleswhich presented
20 On the privatizationof the Italianfamily in the postwar years, cf. ChiaraSaraceno,'La
famiglia:i paradossidella costruzionedel privato'in PhilippeAriesand GeorgesDuby (eds),La
vita privata,vol. 5, II Novecento(Rome-Bari1988), 185-227. (Englishtranslation:'The Italian
Family:Paradoxesof Privacy'in AntoineProstand GerardVincent[eds],A History of Private
Life, vol. 5, Riddlesof Identityin ModernTimes[Cambridge,MA and London1991], 451-501.)
21 JohnFoot, 'Migrationand the "Miracle"at Milan.The Neighbourhoodsof Baggio,Barona,
Bovisaand Comasinain the 1950s and 1960s',Journalof HistoricalSociology,10, 2 (June1997),
184-212.
22 CooperazioneeconomicaItalia-StatiUniti1944-1954 (Rome1954), 10.
23 Lesley Caldwell, 'The Family in the Fifties. A Notion in Conflict with a Reality' in
ChristopherDugganand ChristopherWagstaff(eds),Italyin the Cold War.Politics,Cultureand
Society1948-58 (OxfordandWashingtonDC 1995), 156-7.
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
325
an Americanized
'modern'.At that
imageof thehomeinterioras intrinsically
like
aimed
Domus
were
still
at
small
time,magazines
segmentsof thegeneral
in
The
wide
American
of
public.
coverage
examples these magazineswas
articles
were
devoted
to
furnituremanufacturers
such as
revealing:many
HermanMilleror designers
likeCharlesEames(oneof thefavouritearchitects
of the company),authorsof productshardlyaccessibleto theItalianpublic.24
Yet the importance
The
of thesepublications
shouldnot be underestimated.
modelsthatwerepropagated
this
kind
of
were
bypublications
quicklypicked
in associationwithothersymbolsof
up by othermediaandoftenreproduced
suchas the automobile.It is not by coincidencethat
Italianmodernization,
GianniMazzocchi,the publisherof Domus,also publishedQuattroruote,
a
affiliated
the
with
national
car
periodicalclosely
industry.
in booksmainlydirectedat the professional
housesspecializing
Publishing
worldof architectural
of
furtheraccelerated
the dissemination
practitioners
this visualmaterial.Bookseriespublishedby G6rlichor Hoepli(to mention
two of the mostpopularpublishers)
containedcountlesstitlesdedicatedto
the designof the home.25
into
accountsubjectsas disparateas the
By taking
the
house
or thedining-room,
thesepublicaapartment
building, single-family
tionsprovideddesignerswith new standards
once
that,
implemented,
helped
redefinedomestictaste.Thenon-specialized
press,especiallywomen'smagait to middle-andlowerzines,soon pickedup the theme,and disseminated
It is thereforenot incidental
middle-class
audiences.
thattheperiodicalGrazia
- foundedin 1926 andpublishedby Mondadori,one of the largestItalian
- associatedits namewiththemodelof a pre-fabricated
suburban
publishers
housemanufactured
by a Veroneseentrepreneur.26
Thecirculation
of theseimageswasprobablyinstrumental
morein modifyin
than
domestic
desires
lived
realities.
From
this
ing
changing
pointof view,
24
Cf. for example:'Serie americana',Domus, 235 (1949), 19-25; 'Mobili dall'America',
Domus, 236 (1949), 38-9; 'Mobili rustici americani in legno', Domus, 246 (May 1950), 10; 'Un
allestimento americano', ibid., 11-13; 'Serie americana', ibid., 58-9; Carlo Santi, 'Charles Eames
e la tecnica', Domus, 256 (March 1951), 11-14; 'Particolari della casa-studio di Eames e della
sede della "Miller furniture"', ibid., 15-23; 'Nuova sedia di Eames', Domus, 270 (May 1952),
47-9.
25 Worth mentioning among the books published by Gorlich are: Giulio Contini and Giuseppe
Tirelli,Manualedellepianted'abitazione:dalla casa isolataal quartiereurbanosecondoprincipi
modulari(Milan 1948); AlessandroLissoni, Ville casette:63 architetti,70 progetti,447 illustrazioni (Milan 1952); Mario Ravegnani Morosini, La casa individuale in Italia (Milan 1957);
CarloPerogalli,Casead appartamentiin Italia (Milan 1959); Villein pianura:ville residenziali,
ville da fine settimana,casedi campagna(Milan1961). Amongthosepublishedby Hoepli:Bruno
Moretti,Cased'abitazionein Italia:quartieripopolari,case operaie,caseper impiegati,case civili
di tipo medio e signorile.70 esempiillustratiin 228 tavole, con 217 fotoincisioni,250 piantee
disegni (Milan 1947); Roberto Aloi, Camere da letto, armadi, tolette (Milan 1948); idem, Sale da
pranzo (Milan 1953). Many of these books - in particular those published by Hoepli - were
republished in several editions.
26 A model of a 'Casetta di Grazia' by the 'Costruzioni Prefabbricate e Smontabili E.I. Fratelli
Bortolaso' company appears, for example, in the advertising pages of the catalogue of the Twelfth
Milan Triennale. The complete title of the magazine was Grazia. La rivista della donna italiana.
326
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
dissemination
wenthandin handwiththecomingof consumer
society,andits
of
forms
There
the
between
and
functions.
is no other
remaking
relationship
the
in
to
flood
of
commodities
that
was
to
way interpret
shipped Italy theearly
in
1950s fromthe USAto be displayed publicvenues.Amongthe domestic
in theAmerican
accoutrements
sectionat theNinthMilanTriennale
presented
of 1951 were,for instance,an 'electrickitchenwith fourrangesandelectric
ovenadaptable
to two differenttypesof kitchens',an'electriccream-beater',
a
and
two
different
for
floor
'brooms
can-opener'
'magnetized
washing'.27
the spreadof Americanmodelswas rootedin a transatlantic
Interestingly,
culturalexchangethat appearedambiguousin many respects.American
ideasof Italyby andlargeremainedanchoredin a highly-romanticized
preWhileconindustrialviewof thecountrycommonamongforeignobservers.28
sidereda potentialmarketfor consumergoods,Italywas not yet grantedthe
statusof a matureconsumersociety.For example,the exhibition'Italyat
of Chicago,pictured
Work',heldfromMarchto May1951at theArtInstitute
Italianmanufacturing
as mainlya sourceof high-quality
handicrafts;
apart
froma Lambretta
scooterandsomeOlivettitypewriters,
theshowmostlyforeTo be sure,
ceramics,jewelsandembroideries.29
groundedinlaiddecorations,
in the early1950sItalystilllaggedfar behindAmerican
socialandeconomic
thespecificityanduniqueness
of theItalianidiom
Nonetheless,
developments.
of consumermodernity
seemsto havegonelargelyunnoticed.
A good case in pointis the popularization
of televisionin Italianhomes.
in 1954
Hereit is well to rememberthat the introductionof broadcasting
of theeconomicmiracleandtheslowtransformation
markedthebeginning
of
domesticlife.As historianJohnFoothasnoted,theinitialperiodwas characterizedby a 'collective'use of television:becauseof the low numberof sets,
viewersassembledin barsor in thehomesof thosefewfamilieswhichowned
a TV.30
Bythe endof the 1960s,however,this 'collective'
phasehadcometo
an endanda moreprivatized
of
television
reception
began.As salesincreased,
in thelivingroom,sincetheybeganto be
televisionsetsmadetheirappearance
consideredlessas a meansof information
andentertainment
thanas a status
27 The display had been organized by Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti and Ernesto
Nathan Rogers of the renowned Milanese architectural firm Bbpr: 'Gli oggetti alla mostra USA
della Triennale', Domus, 260 (July-August 1951), 43-6.
28 On the perception of Italian architecture and society by American observers, cf.: George E.
Kidder Smith, 'Native Italian Architecture. Contemporary Italian Architecture', typescript,
American Association of Architectural Bibliographers, October 1954; idem, Italy Builds. Its
Modern Architecture and Native Inheritance: Photographs by the Author (London, New York
and Milan 1955); idem, 'The Modern Architecture of Italy', Italian Quarterly, 7-8 (1958-59),
54-72. On this subject see also Paolo Scrivano, 'A Country Beyond Its Borders. Foreign Influences
and Infiltrations in Postwar Italian Architecture', 2G, 15 (2000), 12-17.
29 Meyric R. Rogers, Italy at Work. Her Renaissance in Design Today (Rome 1950); cf. also
idem, 'Italy at Work. Her Renaissance in Design Today', The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin, 45,
1 (February 1951), 2-9.
30 John Foot, 'Television and the City. The Impact of Television in Milan, 1954-1960',
Contemporary European History, 8, 3 (November 1999), 379-94.
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
327
FIGURE 3
An 'American' radio and TV set, 1955
[from Domus 305, 1955]
symbol.31Notably, the first exemplars presented in the mass media were often
labelled 'American'.32American consumerism thus framed postwar images of
Italian domestic modernity (Fig. 3).
This version of Italian modernization was welcomed by some contemporary
observers. Howard Whidden, the foreign editor of the American-based
Business Week, collected statistics relating to retail sales in Western Europe in
the first half of the 1950s and concluded that the Old Continent was well on
the way to developing an 'American-style consumer market'.33His figures,
published in 1955 in the Harvard Business Review, indicated that Italy came
31 Ibid.
32 'Televisione e radio. Soluzioni americane', Domus, 305 (April 1955), 57; 'Un soggiorno e la
televisione nel soggiorno. Liliana Grassi, arch.', Domus, 307 (June 1955), 27-9; cf. also Foot,
'Television and the City', op. cit., 383.
33 Howard P. Whidden, 'Birth of a Mass Market - Western Europe', Harvard Business
Review, 33, 3 (May-June 1955), 101-7.
328
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
just after Great Britainand Germanyin terms of domestic consumptionin
Europe. Accordingto Whidden'sdata, total personalconsumptionin Italy
rose by 6 per cent in 1954 (as opposedto 8 per cent in West Germany);in that
same year, sales of refrigeratorstopped 110,000, washingmachines120,000
and vacuum cleaners 80,000, which was a 50 per cent increase on 1953
figures. Estimatesprojectedthat Italy would soon reach Britishlevels of per
capitaconsumption.34
Althoughhe complainedabout stubbornculturalresistance in Italy as well as in the rest of WesternEurope,Whiddeninsisted on
linking consumerism to economic growth. 'A more efficient marketing
system',he wrote, 'whichstimulatesconstantlyrisingsalesof consumergoods
can do more than encouragethe use of mass-productionmethodsin the consumergoods industriesand the basic industriesthat supplythem. It can bring
benefitsto the economy as a whole.'3 Given this materialisticapproach,the
call for an 'Americanization
of economicthinking'as a Cold Warweaponwas
taken seriously:'As WesternEurope'seconomygrows stronger',emphatically
statedWhidden,'so will its abilityto resistcommunistpressure.'36
While the figuresprovidedby the article in the HarvardBusiness Review
may have been over-optimistic,the expansionof the domesticelectric appliances industrybetweenthe early 1950s and the late 1960s confirmsa broader
Italiantrend towardsmass consumption.37
What countedmost, after all, was
the extent to which the materialtransformationaffecting the country was
becoming visible. Even if acknowledging the Italian 'maldistribution'of
wealth, a United StatesDepartmentof State reportin 1954 accuratelyregistered the increasein per capita consumptionin Italy. Among the indicators
cited in the reportwas the rise in householdelectricityuse: consumptionhad
in fact increasedby 26 per cent between 1938 and 1947 and 37 per cent
between 1947 and 1952 (72 percent between 1938 and 1952).38The statistics
alone, however,do not convey a very accuratepictureof the situation.In fact,
the profusionof data alreadyavailableabout the social and economic trans34
35
36
Ibid.
Ibid., 105.
Ibid. On the attempt by the American authorities to create a free market economy in Western
Europe in the years immediately following the second world war and on the resistance by
European elites and bureaucracies, cf. David W. Elwood, Rebuilding Europe. Western Europe,
America and Postwar Reconstruction 1945-1955 (London and New York 1992).
37 Italian production of refrigerators went from 18,500 units in 1951 to 370,000 in 1957, and
3,200,000 in 1967 (at that date, Italy was the world's third-largest manufacturer). These data are
quoted in Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy, op. cit., 215. On the association of economic and societal factors in the creation of the Italian consumer society in the late 1950s and
1960s (with reference, in particular, to the commercial sector), cf.: Emanuela Scarpellini,
Comprare all'americana. Le origini della rivoluzione commerciale in Italia 1945-1971 (Bologna
2001), 77-122; Victoria De Grazia, American Supermarkets versus European Small Shops. Or
How Transnational Capitalism Crossed Paths with Moral Economy in Italy during the 1960s
(Trondheim 2002).
38 'Aid Programs. Impact of American Aid on Italian Standard of Living', NARA 59, General
Records of the Department of State. Miscellaneous Lot Files, box 16, 23 April 1954.
to Consumerism
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
329
formations
about
underwayin Italyat thattimegiveonlygenericinformation
the country'spassagefrom a production-driven
to a consumption-driven
economyand culture.In particular,these statisticsscarcelydescribethe
haveargued,an
Assomehistorians
public'schangingattitudeto consumption.
in
the
creation
of
the
consumer
is
element
society whathas been
important
calledthe 'educationto consumption',
that is, the alterationof collective
behaviourresultingfromthe acquisitionand use of consumergoods.39
This
impliedthat peoplenot only lived differently,but also learnednew skills,
to the worldand
developednew identitiesand modifiedtheirrelationships
of
eachother.40
ForItalythiswas a challenging
issue,giventhe backwardness
areas
of
and
still
consumer
the
unrealized
dreams.41
country
large
moreevidentthanin attitudes
Nowherewerethesesocialtransformations
of - and
towardthehome.A goodexamplecanbe foundin theimportation
In
house.
1955the
reactionto - theAmerican
modelof the suburban
family
in
with the magazine
UnitedStatesDepartment
of Commerce, collaboration
HouseBeautiful,the Producers'
Council,the NationalAssociationof Home
Buildersand the Prefabricated
HomeManufacturers'
Institute,organizeda
Its themeand generalplan
travellingexhibitioncalled'MainStreet,USA'.42
were the brainchildof PeterSchladermundt
Associatesof New York.The
eventwas expresslyprepared
to present'thepeopleof Europewitha life-size
The exhibitionwas displayedat the interpictureof how Americanslive'.43
nationaltradefairsof ParisandBarcelona,
whereasin Italyit wasinstalledat
of Milanandat the Fieradel Levanteof Bari.'Main
the FieraCampionaria
Street,USA'wasbasedon two differentprototypesof partially-prefabricated
houses.Threeroomsof the first house, a $14,000 model sold by Scholz
Homes Inc., were initiallyassembled,furnishedand decoratedin Toledo,
andreconstructed
Ohio,thenphotographed
exactlyin bothMilanandParis.
The second house, a $12,500 prototypedesignedby National Homes
in Lafayette,Indiana,was photographed
andduplicatedfirstin
Corporation
Barcelonaandthen in Bari(Fig.4). 'MainStreet,USA'offereda domestic
environmentfilled with the latest availablehome products.In fact, both
39
Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel, 'From America to Europe: Educating Consumers',
Contemporary European History, 11, 1 (February 2002), 165-75.
40 Describing the formation of a new language of consumption in postwar German women's
magazines, Michael Wildt has referred to a 'shift in the semiotic dimension of consumption':
Michael Wildt, 'Changes in Consumption as Social Practice in West Germany During the 1950s'
in Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern and Matthias Judt (eds), Getting and Spending. European
and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century (Washington DC, Cambridge and
New York 1998), 301-16.
41 Emanuela Scarpellini, '"People of plenty": consumi e consumerismo come fattori di identitai
nella societa italiana' in Paolo Capuzzo (ed.), Genere, generazioni e consumi. L'Italia degli anni
Sessanta (Rome 2003), 53-61.
42 Joseph A. Barry, 'Proudly House Beautiful shows Europe how Americans live', House
Beautiful, 97, 7 (July 1955), 86-95 (114-16, 122 for a list of the manufacturers who contributed
to the exhibition).
43 Ibid., 86.
330
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
FIGURE4
NationalHomesCorporation,prototypefor $12,500 house, 1955
[from House Beautiful 7, 1955]
houses were equippedwith kitchen,refrigerator,washing-machineand dryer,
dishwasher,televisionand a completeset of small appliancesand tableware.
The audienceto which thesemodelswereimplicitlyaddressedwas female.The
caption accompanying one of the illustrations published by the House
Beautiful report on the exhibition stated that women would '[ .
] quickly
grasp [ ... ] the real freedom offered by our excellent equipment,the vast
Of course,
improvementthey make in the daily details of homemaking'.44
'Main Street,USA'espousedan optimisticidea of postwareconomicdevelopment, one basedon an assumptionof unlimitedmaterialbountyas well as the
salutaryeffects of consumerismon society. It was indicativethat the House
Beautiful report was followed by an editorial by magazineeditor Elizabeth
Gordon entitled 'How High Is Up?'.45In it Gordon gave her answer to the
question of the article's title: 'Up is as high as we want to make it. Our
standardof livingis up as high as we wish to take it.'46
To be sure, it is impossibleto gaugewith any precisionthe impactof these
prototypes on Italians at the time. But by all accounts, the Milan and Bari
trade fairs were popular affairs,markedby wide press coverage and a rela44 Ibid.,90.
45 ElizabethGordon,'How High Is Up?',HouseBeautiful,97, 7 (July1955), 95-6, 110, 113.
46 Ibid.,95.
to Consumerism
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
33
Thisshowtookon additionalsignificance,
not
tivelyhighnumberof visitors.47
least becauseit was the Americans'
firstofficialparticipation
in the Milan
event.As suchit underscored
the pointthatAmericanandItalianauthorities
were generallymoreinterestedin the Cold Warpropagandadimensionof
theseshowsthanin theconcreteimplementation
of thesestandardized
models.
A lettersentby the Italianambassador
in Washington
to the Department
of
Statedrewattentionto the 'favourable
of America's
politicalrepercussions'
participation,
especiallyin lightof 'thegrowingnumberof countriesthathave
attendedtheexhibitionfrombothsidesof theIronCurtain'.48
No mentionwas
madeof thepossiblereceptionof the exhibition.Froman architectural
point
of view, the housingschemeproposedin 'MainStreet,USA'was basedon
threebedrooms,a living-roomand a kitchen.The houseson displayhad
- a carport.
pavedterraces,landscapedgardens,and- most interestingly
The unionof houseandcar- of domesticity
andmobility was the overarchingimagethat the Americanshow (togetherwith manyothersimilar
initiatives)conveyedto the Italianpublic.Advertising
campaigns(andalso
movies)furtherattestedto how the publicimageof the 'homespace'was
underradicalreconstruction.
Car manufacturers,
for instance,elaborated
visualmessages.Onetellingexampleis an advertisement
quitesophisticated
for a small,mass-market
car, the Fiat600, showingwhat the new idealof
In it the Italiandrivetowardsmodernization
had
become.
is
domesticity
embodiedbymalemechanical
while
the
Italian
mobility,
contemporary
family
is represented
this
by youngparents,a daughteranda smallpet. Completing
suburbanhousewith a
happyscenarioof the good life is a modern-style
containsan additionalpresence:
gardenanda pool49(Fig.5). Thephotograph
a woman,apparently
olderthantheotherfemalefigure,seemingly
themother.
It is not unusualto identifyin this sort of image'traditional'
elementsthat
wereinsertedto counterbalance
the disruptive
potentialof the messagesproposedby theadvertisement
campaigns.
thecirculation
of suchAmerican
Predictably,
imagesof domesticmodernity
a
of
reactions.
generated variety
Again,passionaterejection,covertassimilation and enthusiasm
oftenfreelycoexisted.The evolutionof the kitchen,as
in specialized
thisconflict.In 1952
represented
publications,
neatlyillustrates
the 'CornellKitchen',a studyconductedby the CornellUniversityHousing
ResearchCenterandthe New YorkStateCollegeof HomeEconomics,
made
its Americandebut.50
Directedby GlennH. Beyer,professorof housingand
47 On the Milan trade fair and its role at national level, see Giulio Sapelli,Milano volano
dell'economianazionale,in FieraMilano 1920-1995. Un percorsotra economiae architettura
(Milan1995), 32-45.
48 LetterfromtheItalianambassadorto theUSAto theUnitedStatesSecretaryof State,NARA,
RG 59, GeneralRecords of the Departmentof State, MiscellaneousLot Files, box 17, 16
September1954.
49 ASF,Album17, SP22399, 1955-63.
50 GlennH. Beyer(ed.), The CornellKitchen.ProductDesign throughResearch(Ithaca,NY
1952);cf. also, 'CornellKitchen... RefreshingNew Ideasin Designwhichmay ShapetheKitchen
of Tomorrow',AmericanBuilder,75, 6 (June1953), 46-52.
332
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
FIGURE5
Advertisement
campaignfor the launchof the Fiat600, 1957 ca.
[ArchivioStoricoFiat,Turin]
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
333
FIGURE 6
The 'Cornell Kitchen', 1952 [from Glenn H. Beyer (ed.), The Cornell Kitchen. Product design
through research (Ithaca, NY 1952)]
design at Cornell, the six-year investigation surveyed 600 owner-operated
farms in 12 East Coast American states to collect statistics on how more than
100,000 families used their kitchens. With the collaboration of the Philadelphia architect Frank Weise, the Cornell Center then designed and built a
prototype kitchen tested by female users from the university and larger local
community (Fig. 6). The publication of the Cornell Kitchen study provoked
controversial reactions in Italy, some of which were not particularly positive.
For instance, Documenti di architettura e industria edilizia - a periodical
published by the National Committee for Documentation in the Building
Industry - rejected the Cornell proposal on the basis of its supposed unsuitability to the Italian context.51 Although it acknowledged the rigour and
scientific nature of the study, Documenti di architettura e industria edilizia
criticized it for being 'excessively minute, too mechanized, to say nothing
about the fact that it will be practically convenient only if balanced by mass
Documenti di
51 'Progettazione di arredamenti da cucina secondo l'indagine della
,Cornell>',
architettura e industria edilizia, 20 (October-December 1954), 10-12. The magazine had been
founded following the resolutions adopted by the Commission E'conomique pour l'Europe of the
United Nations (Comit6 de l'Industrie et des Produits de Base - Sous-Comit6 de l'Habitat) during
the Conference of Building Documentation held in Geneva between 6 and 15 October 1949. The
goal of the conference, attended by delegations from 16 countries, had been to study the 'problem
of collecting and diffusing scientific and technical information on building industry'. Each country
had created the institution of a National Centre for Documentation in Building Industry (in Italy
the Centro Nazionale di Documentazione Edilizia).
334
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
This dismissalis particularlynoteworthy,given that Documenti
production'.52
di architetturae industriaedilizia was closely associatedwith the world of
those architects and engineers who usually backed reconstructionmodels
based on industrializationand standardization."s
The rejection was thus
in
articulated the nameof culturaldifference;hereand elsewherecultureoften
trumpedeconomics.
Opposition to Americanmodels was not uncommonin the postwar years,
and resonated among both 'conservative'and 'progressive'architects and
intellectuals.Generally,'resisters'to Americanizationdefendedtheir actions
by reclaimingthe distinctlyItaliantraditionof modernizationalreadybegun
before the war, revealinga noticeable tendency to regard some aspects of
fascism as inherentlybenign and 'apolitical'. While this may strike some
readersas puzzling,therewas some truthin the assertionthat Italy could rely
on its own modernizingtraditionas positiveculturalballast.Yet one need not
invoke as proof the bombastic proclamationsof the Futurists and their
rhetoric of speed, machines and mechanization.For instance, the series of
studiescarriedout just beforethe war by the Istitutonazionalefascistaper gli
studi e la sperimentazionenell'industriaedilizia(FascistNational Institutefor
Studyand Experimentationin the BuildingIndustry)is a good case in point.54
The Instituteinitiatedinnovativeresearchin the standardizationof the building industrythat not only touched on the subjectof domesticspace, but also
helpedcreatethe basis (andforms)for postwarreconstruction."s
But despite such rebuffslike the 'CornellKitchen'programme,the impact
of Americandomestic prototypes on Italian architecturalculture must not
be underestimated.Designs similar to those elaborated by the group of
researchersat Cornell could be found in many Italian publications. Once
again, Domus played a central role in this process of dissemination.5'No
doubt the relativelysmall audienceof the specializedpressinitiallylimitedthe
circulationof these imagesmostly to the upper-middleclass. With time, however, new ideas aboutthe layout,functionand look of the kitchen- ones that
eventuallybecameremarkablywidespreadamong Italianfamilies- beganto
Ibid., 12.
On the protagonists of this approach to Italy's reconstruction, cf. Pier Paolo Peruccio,
'Genealogie per una ricostruzione scientifica: Gustavo Colonnetti e le politiche sull'abitazione nei
Centri Studio tra ii 1943 e il 1950', Le Culture della Tecnica, 9, 14 (2002), 147-68.
54 The Istituto nazionale fascista per gli studi e la sperimentazione nell'industria edilizia was
established in 1940; on the Institute, cf. Emilio Pifferi, 'L'Istituto nazionale fascista per gli studi e
la sperimentazione nell'industria edilizia', Architettura Italiana, 38, 3-4 (March-April 1943),
32-7.
55 Cf. for example, Mario Ridolfi, 'Mobili fissi', Architettura. Rivista del Sindacato nazionale
fascista Architetti, 6 (June 1942), 182-99; Pasquale Carbonara, 'Analisi degli elementi dell'
abitazione 1. La cucina nella tradizione della famiglia italiana', Architettura. Rivista del Sindacato
nazionale fascista Architetti, 7-8-9 (July-August-September 1942), 16-21.
56 'Per la cucina. Nuove attrezzature e nuovi materiali', Domus, 307 (June 1955), 52-3;
"'America at Home" a Francoforte', ibid., 55-7; 'L'attrezzatura della cucina. Renato Radici,
arch.', Domus, 311 (October 1955), 58-9.
52
53
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
335
FIGURE 7
New equipment and materials for the kitchen, 1955
[from Domus 307, 1955]
dilate ever more broadly.The concepts of modularcomponents,soluzione a
parete (a kitchencompletelyassembledalong a wall), and 'built-in'cabinets
came to be familiarfeaturesof many Italianhomes, as plastic materialsand
householdgoods usheredin a visualrevolutionof domesticlife (Fig. 7).
If nothing else, these tensions between rejectionand assimilationprovide
revealinginstancesof the Americanizationof Italianeverydaylife in the 1950s
and 1960s. ForAmericaninfluencewent well beyondsimplysupplyingexamples to be imitated.Rather,the exposureto new domesticideas and lifestyles
importedfromthe USA was instrumentalin remakingthe social and cultural
expectationsof Italiansociety. In short, Americawas becomingItaly'stouchstone. A surveypreparedby the ResearchOffice of the USISin Rome, entitled
'WhatItaliansWant to Know About AmericanLife',gives some indicationof
the aspects of Americanculture that particularlyinterestedthe Italians.s7In
this study, the headings 'Living Conditions' and 'Family Life' were rated
second and third after 'Labour'of the subjectsthat attractedmost attention:
57 'Public Opinion in Italy n. 4. What Italians Want to Know About American Life', NARA,
RG 306, Records of the US Information Agency, Research Reports, 1953-1986, box 11,
September 1957.
336
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
'Architecture'occupiedthe last place on the list.S8These shiftingexpectations
were consequentialin a numberof ways. Most important,however, was the
mannerin which Americanimages loosened and redefinedtraditionalsocial
hierarchiesgoverningItaliansociety,in a way which effectivelychallengedthe
divide between 'high'and 'low' cultureand the old markersof social distinction.
Another good example of changingpublic perceptionscan be seen in the
activity of the Ufficio Consulenza Case Dipendenti (Employees'Housing
Consultancy Office) within the internationally-famoustypewriter manufacturerOlivetti. In the postwar years, Olivetti was well known for the vast
array of social servicesoffered to its workforce. The company's president,
AdrianoOlivetti,had been interestedin architectureand town planningsince
the 1930s, when he first took the helm of his father'sbusiness.Althoughnot
himselfan architector a planner,Olivettibecameone of the key brokersof the
Italianarchitecturalsceneafterthe secondworld war throughhis variousroles
as entrepreneur,political leader, publicist and publisher,and not least as
patron of several importantplanningand architecturalprojects.59For these
reasons, the programmeof the Consultancy Office assumed a particular
significance,in that it weddedsocial politicswith the attemptto modernizethe
architectural'taste' of the people living in the area it served.The programme
was active in and around Ivrea, the small town in the northernregion of
Piedmont,where Olivetti'sheadquartersand main factorieswere located.The
specifictask of the office was to assist employeesin repairingor transforming
existingdwellings,or in buildingnew ones. It was fundedby loans issued at a
low interestrate (4 per cent) by Olivetti to cover up to 60 per cent of total
expenses.What is more, the office offereddesign and buildingexecution for
free.60The scope and successof the whole initiativewere remarkable.Even if
area, between 1951 and 1959 the Ufficio
acting in a geographically-limited
ConsulenzaCase Dipendentiissued loans for a total of 517 million lire, a
significant amount of money at the time. Under the direction of its chief
designer,architectEmilioAventinoTarpino,it built more than 600 dwellings
for Olivetti employees.Moreover, in 1957 the Olivetti company contacted
leadingavant-gardeItalianarchitects- LuigiFiginiand Gino Pollini, Franco
Albini and FrancaHelg, Mario Fiorentino- to developtypologicalschemes
to be used in the office's design activity.61Conceivedby the same Adriano
Olivetti, this undertakingaimed at drawing up a 'cataloguecomposed of a
58 Interestingly, the USIS document asserted that the conclusions of the study appeared to be
similar to surveys conducted at the same time in Great Britain.
59 On Olivetti and his role in architecture, cf. Patrizia Bonifazio and Paolo Scrivano, Olivetti
Builds. Modern Architecture in Ivrea (Milan 2001), 11-21.
60 Roberto Olivetti, 'La societa Olivetti nel Canavese', Urbanistica, 33 (1961), 77.
61 On the activity of the office, cf. Paolo Scrivano, 'La comunita e la sua difficile realizzazione.
Adriano Olivetti e l'urbanistica a Ivrea e nel Canavese' in Olmo, Costruire la citti~dell'uomo, op.
cit., 83-112; Bonifazio and Scrivano, Olivetti Builds, op. cit., 149-73.
to Consumerism
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
337
select numberof projectsfor standardizedand typified houses' from which
employeescould choose theirown home design.62
The objectiveof this plan was to disseminate'high' architecturalquality.
Homes for employeeswere not simplymeantto be technicallysound, but also
revived certain stylistic characteristicsof the past, usually in the form of a
revised version of pre-war Italian modernism.More importantly,they also
registeredkey elementsof the ongoingtransformationof Italiandomesticlife.
In fact, the differentprototypesproposed by the invited architectstook on
many Americanideas, includingfully-equippedkitchens,separaterooms for
diningand receiving,as well as a coveredspaceto parkthe car. The projectby
Albini and Helg, for example, featuredthe garageon one side of the singlestorey, single-familybuilding.63
Noteworthy,too, is that the plan pursuedby
the ConsultancyOffice was favouredby Olivetti'swork-force,which comprised an unusuallyhigh ratio of white- to blue-collarworkers. Even so,
Olivetti's programmehighlightsthe extent to which middle-classmodels of
home life were convergingwith ideals importedfrom the USA, even within
one of Italy'smost socially-advancedyet paternalisticcorporatecultures.The
degreeto which these social and culturalvaluesprevailedat the beginningof
the 1960s is made plain by the dominantimages of domesticitycirculating
within Italy'sarchitecturalcultureat the time. In 1960 an exhibitionentitled
'La casa e la scuola' ('Home and school') was opened at the Twelfth Milan
The show presentedsix differentmodel apartments,all of them
Triennale.64
reproducedin full-scalein the rooms of the Palazzo dell'Artein the Parco
Sempione.Imaginedas a rural,a suburban,and a city-centrelocationrespectively, these apartmentspresumedthe presenceof variousdomesticelectrical
With the theme 'Home and
appliances, most notably the refrigerator.65
the
to
wanted
the
school', organizers
emphasize importanceof 'familylife' and
'human education' as the very cornerstonesof Italian 'democratization'.66
Efforts to reconcilethe modernizationof the domestic sphere with cultural
resistanceto it was, of course, difficultand demanding;indeed,these contradictions eventuallyled to the radicalizationof Italianarchitecturalculturein
the following decade.In this way, the 1960s critiqueof consumerismand the
debit side of domesticmodernizationin large measuregrew out of the 1950s
effort to make over Italianhome life as a symbol of post-fascistprogressand
prosperity.
That said, the pervasivenessof the Americanmodels of mass consumption
62
Letter from the Uffici della Presidenza Olivetti to Emilio Aventino Tarpino, AET, 1 April
1957.
'Casette per dipendenti Olivetti', AET, 5 August 1958.
Pier Carlo Santini (ed.), 12a Triennale di Milano. Catalogo (Milan 1960), 53-78.
The apartments were designed by Vittorio Gregotti, Ludovico Meneghetti and Giotto
Stoppino (rural apartment); Pier Luigi Spadolini and Mario Maioli (suburban apartment 1); Fredi
Drugman (suburban apartment 2); Gae Aulenti (apartment in the city centre 1); Luigi Caccia
Dominioni (apartment in the city centre 2); Fulvio Raboni (apartment in the city centre 3).
66 Santini, 12a Triennale di Milano, op. cit., 54-6.
63
64
65
338
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
afterthesecondworldwardidnotpreventEuropean
countriesfromfollowing
in
A diversityof
their
own
consumer
independent
paths forging
societies.67
made
this
doubtless
American
influence
was a
trajectories
up
phenomenon:
decisivemodernizing
but
other
or
local
factors
element,
national,regional
(such as the role playedby economicelites or professionalgroups)were
On the whole, the effectsof the transformation
were hardlyuncrucial.68
withcountrieslikeWestGermanyor
equivocal.Arrivinglateby comparison
- insteadof solvingthem- onlyaccenGreatBritain,Italy'smodernization
tuatedtheirinherentsocialcontradictions.
Modernization
andAmericanizationdidnot necessarily
as
historians
have
made
clearin
coincide,
increasingly
recentyears.69
the
of
massive
Nevertheless, consequences Italy's
exposureto
Americanimagesand idealsof domesticmodernitywere far-reaching.
Yet
this wentwell beyondchallenging
hierarchies
at
the
root
of
Italian
symbolic
to dissolvethe borderbetween
societyat thetime.Forfascismhadattempted
'high'and'low'culture,at leastfor propagandistic
purposes.Whatwasnew,
framedthe new discussionon
though,was the way that 'Americanization'
one thatcentredon the privatization
of collectivebehaviour
modernization,
of socialspace.Fromthispointof view,the American
andthe domestication
mythof the individualseemedto be explicitlyusedin oppositionto the myth
of themassesinherited
fromthefascistregime.Again,animagefroma famous
advertisingcampaignneatlycapturesthis shift.In a seriesof photographs
madefor thelaunchof theFiat500, a loneemployeemeetshis own familyat
thefactorygate:an undefined
crowdfollowshimat a distance,someworkers
pushingbicycles70
(Fig. 8). The similaritywith the famous paintingby
GiuseppePellizzadaVolpedo,'QuartoStato'(1901),oneof the 'icons'of the
Italiansocialistmovement,is striking.Thecrucialdifference,
however,is that
themassof workersis no longermarching
towardstheegalitarian
promiseof
of consocialism,but ratherseemsto be movingtowardsthe individualism
sumersociety.
The ideologicalimplications
of this increasingprivatization
of citizenship
wereclear.Afterall,onemustnot forgetthattheanti-communist
propaganda
of thetimeforgedits rhetoricin defenceof Italiancultureagainstthepotential
collectivistlifestyles.It mightnot be an
dangersbroughtby standardized
Cold
War
but
the
explicit
weapon,
emphasison the privatesphereseemedto
67 Cf., for example, Matthew Hilton, 'Consumer Politics in Post-war Britain' in Martin
Daunton and Matthew Hilton (eds), The Politics of Consumption. Material Culture and
Citizenship in Europe and America (Oxford and New York 2001), 241-59.
68 Victoria De Grazia, 'Changing Consumption Regimes in Europe, 1930-1970. Comparative
Perspectives on the Distribution Problem' in Strasser, McGovern and Judt (eds), Getting and
Spending, op. cit., 59-83.
69 With a close reference to the case of Italy cf., for example, 'Discussioni. Americanizzazione e
modernizzazione nell'Europa postbellica', Passato e Presente, 9, 23 (May-August 1990), 19-46,
with interventions by Federico Romero, Michael J. Hogan, Leonardo Paggi and Vibeke Sorensen.
70 See, for example, ASF, Album 21, SP 27472/342, 1955-63; ASF, Album 21, SP 27475/342,
1955-63.
Scrivano:Italy'sPostwarConversion
to Consumerism
339
FIGURE8
Advertisement
campaignfor the launchof the Fiat500, 1958 ca.
[ArchivioStoricoFiat,Turin]
fit well into the ideological battles dividing the Western and Eastern blocs after
the war. In light of these issues, left-wing organizations and intellectuals
were often ambivalent and inconsistent about the changing face of popular
culture.71 For what continued to be uncertain were the forms with which
modernity could be combined with tradition, insomuch as conflicting images
of 'new' and 'old' at times could be contrasted to legitimize change, while at
other times could reassure an uneasy public that such social transformations
need not be too disruptive. Little wonder that the home played host to many of
these conflicts, since for many Italians the dreams and fears of the postwar
world were closely connected with home and family life. Given its centrality, it
was no surprise that domesticity touched on broader issues of modernization,
Americanization and Cold War politics. Not that this was simple or straightforward, especially given the fact that modernization affected different areas
71 For example,left-wingcultureremainedfor long undecidedabouthow to reactto the growing postwarsuccessof beautycontestssuch as 'Miss Italia':StephenGundle,'FeminineBeauty,
National Identityand PoliticalConflictin PostwarItaly, 1945-1954', ContemporaryEuropean
History, 8, 3 (November 1999), 359-78.
340
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
of the countryin differentways.72But in an age in which muchof the postwar
culturalconflict centredon the place and meaningof Italian culture (to say
nothing of the Italian past itself) in a rapidly changingpostwar world, the
domesticsphereemergedas one of the principalbattlegrounds.
Paolo Scrivano
is AssistantProfessorof ArchitecturalHistoryat the Universityof
Toronto.His most recentpublicationsincludeStoriadi un'ideadi
architetturamoderna.Henry-RussellHitchcocke l'International
Style (Milan2001) and, with PatriziaBonifazio,OlivettiBuilds.
ModernArchitecturein Ivrea(Milan2001). He is currentlyworking
on a book on the historyof the relationof Italianand US
architecturalculturesin the postwaryears.
72 Among the several works which have investigated the tendency by several European countries to adopt a statist approach in the postwar reconstruction of the national economies, cf.: Alan
S. Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945-1951 (London 1984); Michael J.
Hogan, The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe,
1947-1952 (Cambridge and New York 1987); Elwood, Rebuilding Europe, op. cit.