ABSTRACT

Plan and its aftermath in Europe. It then crested

in the Middle East as a result of planning schemes

associated with petroleum exploitation, in East

In 1957 the American social commentator Max Lerner,

refl ecting upon World War II, suggested that

Some of those skills and tools concerned buildings

and city planning. Which ones? Who helped facilitate

the exportation? What were the results? These are

three of the main questions that help frame a

Asia because of U.S. investments associated with

postwar exporting of American principles (Zunz,

1998, pp. 159-188), and in South America because of

manufacturing investments and burgeoning middle

classes (or ‘middle masses’ as one anthropologist

termed them), many of whom yearned for American

products, buildings and spaces. Those tastes sparked

substantial construction-related investments from

private and public U.S. interests. Persistent warfare

in some regions, such as postcolonial Southeast

Asia, brought other waves of construction (and

destruction), the most glaring example of which

was the Vietnam/American War.