Published to accompany an eponymous exhibition organized by UMBC's Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers, and Containers and Packaging, 1951-54 recovers, preserves, and makes visible three lost exhibitions organized by the Traveling Exhibition Service on behalf of the United States Department of State almost seventy years ago: "Contemporary American Textiles" designed by Florence Knoll: "Contemporary American Wallpapers" designed by Tom Lee; and "Containers & Packaging" designed by Will Burtin.

These exhibitions were made for presentation in West German schools, museums, and trade fairs, and through the Amerika Haus Program. By joining consumer choice with political choice, the State Department planned to convince West Germans and other Europeans that the United States and its system of government offered more and better lifestyle choices than those of the Soviet bloc.

This book is both an exhibition catalogue and a reader. It restores the spirit of these three exhibitions to the public memory, while challenging the idea that design has little political purpose. Knowledge of these exhibitions and their showcased objects - characteristically associated with mid-century American design and modernism - contributes to a deeper, broader understanding of how, even now, the Cold War affects our lives, habits and culture.

Book jacket text above. This book has been reduced due to a small fault.