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Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America 1925-1939

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No, a history of industrial design doesn't sound sexy, does it. But 20th Century Ltd. is a thoroughly cool (and thoughtful) exploration of the careers of the three designers who became famous in the 40's -- Loewy, Dreyfuss and Bel Geddes -- and how they changed the 'look and feel' of daily American life, from the black, clunky electromechanical armatures of the 20's to the streamlined, chopped-and-channelled sleek aluminum cowlings of the 40's. This aesthetic language was the secret basis for the giddy cosmetic futurism of Buck Rogers, the 1939 NY Worlds Fair, and Harley Earl's tailfins. There's a good deal of material here, too, about design integrity, a simple principle that can give you a new skepticism about on the products you live with. Is a car's primary function to get the passenger safely from place to place, or is it to get itself sold? If cars are designed aerodynamically, why isn't there an optimal design? Why aren't houses mass-produced like cars are? Just because you were born knowing what toilets and telephone handsets and staplers 'should' look like, doesn't make them God-given and unchangable. . . . 20th Century is a history of how and why the basic consumer-goods design decisions in this century, and after reading it, I was amazed at how many more new alternatives seem possible.

this book is a great history of the first industrial designers in America during the thirties Meickle describes the characters their motivations and the meaningfulness of the STREAMLINED aesthetic very good and useful