The three readings, respectively written by Janet Hutchison, Gail Radford, and Kenneth Jackson, chronologically describe the progression of the United States housing system, and the contexts surrounding it, through the first half of the 20th century. Hutchison argues that the efforts of Herbert Hoover, who was the 31st President of the United States and a former Secretary of Commerce, in reforming the U.S. housing policy are largely overlooked, partly because his name evokes the image of “Hoovervilles”; however, it can not be neglected that under his leadership, the suburban ideal, a whimsical notion that permeated nationwide during the interwar period, became an integral aspect of the American identity. This, in turn, helped the subsequent leaderships cement federal programs that further improved the American housing system. …show more content…
For instance, people began to stereotype public housing as a space inhabited by the poor. Furthermore, the modern housing ideas that were born during Hoover’s presidency met oppositions, including wood suppliers, who felt threatened by the idea that concrete, instead of woods, would revolutionize home construction. The economic context surrounding these reforms, the Great Depression, guided governmental actions to craft policies or agencies to reform housing while keeping the national economy in mind. In the final reading, Jackson argues that the government did not adequately, and effectively, fund public housing in the 1930s. As a consequence, the wealthy escaped the city and dwelt in the suburbs, and the poor remained in inner cities, where meager federal funding was concentrated. Moreover, the mid 20th-century housing policy reinforced income inequality in the United States, where a sharp division of wealth was created between those who live in the city and the