Writing in 1934, Catherine Bauer sharply criticized US reliance on the private market to meet housing needs and, drawing on European models of social housing, argued for a fundamentally different approach. Her work helped lay the intellectual groundwork for public housing in the United States. Now, nearly a century after its publication, we find ourselves in a similar position, trapped in a housing crisis with no clear exit, and increasingly looking to Europe for solutions, while once again debating the merits of private-market versus non-market approaches. How have we arrived at the same crossroads nearly 100 years later? And are we once again poised to repeat the same mistakes?

Building on last month's study of the history of public housing in the US, this month we'll be reading Modern Housing by Catherine Bauer.

Join The Rent Brigade's reading group! We will be reading a book each month, as part of an ongoing series in political education for our members.

To register, you must first become a member: rentbrigade.org/membership.

We will meet at a private residence. The address will be made available upon registration. Please come having read the entire book, though you will not be excluded if you haven't.

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Modern Housing by Catherine Bauer

Originally published in 1934, Modern Housing is widely acknowledged as one of the most important books on housing of the twentieth century, introducing the latest developments in European modernist housing to an American audience. It is also a manifesto: America needs to draw on Europe’s example to solve its housing crisis. Only when housing is transformed into a planned, public amenity will it truly be modern.

Modern Housing’s sharp message catalyzed an intense period of housing activism in the United States, resulting in the Housing Act of 1937, which Catherine Bauer coauthored. But these reforms never went far enough: so long as housing remained the subject of capitalist speculation, Bauer knew the housing problem would remain. In light of today’s affordable housing emergency, her prescriptions for how to achieve humane and dignified modern housing remain as instructive and urgent as ever.