The American 'Fat Kitchen' in Europe: Postwar Domestic Modernity and Marshall Plan Strategies of Enchantment

Both Nixon and Khrushchev recognized the political symbolism of the modern kitchen; the kind of technological innovation represented in this everyday context spoke to the political system that produced it. The kitchen connectsed the "big" politics of politicians and statesmen to the "small" politics of users and interest groups. This book chaper explores "the kitchen" as material object and symbol, considering the politics and the practices of one of the most famous technological icons of the mid-twentieth century with a focus Western Europe in the context of the early Cold War.