Week 4 (and 1-3) Recap and Open Thread

This week a presenter from the Places and Spaces panel, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, blogged about five different aspects of the complicated and crucial American themes of house and home, domestic life and identity, and the American Dream. Her five posts are:

--An introductory post on her major focal points here;

--A post on realities and images of the home post-World War II here;

--A post on domestic consumerism and etiquette over the centuries here;

--A post on recent challenges to federal homeownership policies here;

--And a post on some of her favorite musical images of home here.

Please feel free to continue reading and commenting on all five posts! For your convenience, here are links to the three prior weekly recaps:

--In week 3 we heard from the Pop Culture and Identity and Religion and Identity panels;

--In week 2 we heard from the Transnational and Religion and Identity panels;

--And in week 1 we began with the War and Transnational panels.

Please feel equally free to return to any one of those weeks and posts; they all continue to have a lot to say and offer, the posters will still get the benefit of your comments, and our pre-conference conversations will continue on as many levels as possible. As always, this recap can also serve as an Open Thread for any of those conversations. Next week, we hear from the Literature and Slavery panels!