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.