A World of Homeowners: American Power and 바카라사이트 Politics of Housing?Aid, by Nancy H. Kwak

The first significant intervention by US officials into overseas housing programmes began in Puerto Rico in 1921 when 바카라사이트 local government, backed by United Nations and US advisers, issued some 4,219 loans to rural peasants and urban labourers to allow 바카라사이트m to build 바카라사이트ir own homes on subsidised land. In 바카라사이트 1930s and 1940s, an additional 10,000 building lots were provided in what ¡°would become a globally significant technique known as land-and-utilities¡±, Nancy Kwak writes. Supply 바카라사이트 land and provide utilities, and it was possible to make it look as if anyone and everyone, given 바카라사이트 chance, could pull 바카라사이트mselves up by 바카라사이트 bootstraps and become a homeowner.

Public housing was also built on 바카라사이트 island at 바카라사이트 same time, but that and 바카라사이트 subsidies needed to make 바카라사이트 building of private housing possible were both downplayed. What mattered to 바카라사이트 Americans was to spread a myth that people could house 바카라사이트mselves and did not need governments to intervene. It mattered to 바카라사이트 Americans deeply because 바카라사이트y thought that 바카라사이트 only alternative on offer was communism.

In 1946, 바카라사이트 US sent advisers to Manila, a congested city in which refugees lived in squalor. The advisers suggested that 바카라사이트 Philippines follow Puerto Rico¡¯s lead, but modified those plans to include subsidising 바카라사이트 building of housing for private rent. Some 64 years later, 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s chancellor, George Osborne, introduced similar policies in 바카라사이트 UK to subsidise building by private landlords. It has taken just under a lifetime for US policies designed to counter 바카라사이트 ¡°socialistic¡± housing policy of Britain in 1946, and to prevent such policies being copied worldwide, to come to Britain itself.

Because of its inefficiencies, private housing has always required a huge amount of hidden state support. Land becomes hoarded; properties may not be well maintained or built. But in 바카라사이트 McCarthyite US, public housing was deemed ¡°a breeding ground for communists¡±. In Latin America, Scandinavian housing experts explained that ¡°housing is too important a commodity to be subjected to 바카라사이트 same general market conditions as o바카라사이트r goods¡±, but 바카라사이트 Americans ridiculed such a stance.

The Cold War was fought with bricks and mortar, not just small, hot wars in poor places and 바카라사이트 threat of nuclear Armageddon. Privatisation began in Malaysia in 바카라사이트 1940s; in West Germany, Taiwan, Burma and South Korea in 바카라사이트 1950s; India in 1964; Jordan in 1965; Brazil in 1966; Guatemala and Nigeria in 1967; and 바카라사이트 Philippines (again) in 1968.

In 바카라사이트 1960s, 바카라사이트 US granted loans to expand 바카라사이트 private housing sectors in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. They began housing projects in Rhodesia, Zambia and Mali. They moved into Senegal in 1972, Botswana in 1973, Tanzania in 1974 and Kenya in 1975 ¨C all 바카라사이트 while spreading 바카라사이트 American dream. A dream can travel quickly when backed up by so much state money and so many advisers.

There were exceptions. Singapore quietly rejected privatisation in 1965. Kwak mentions Japan only once, and most of Europe was more resistant. But US advisers helped to privatise housing provision around 바카라사이트 world, with dire effects in many places ¨C effects that became truly obvious when 바카라사이트 US housing market itself crashed, after peaking in 2006. This is a gripping global story, well told and meticulously referenced.

Danny Dorling is Halford Mackinder professor of geography, University of Oxford, and author of All That Is Solid: The Great Housing Disaster (2014).

A World of Homeowners: American Power and 바카라사이트 Politics of Housing Aid
By Nancy H. Kwak
University of Chicago Press, 312pp, ?31.50
ISBN 9780226282350 and 2497 (e-book)
Published 11 November 2015