Everyday Anarchism

173. From William Morris to Bauhaus to Midcentury Modern -- Robin Schuldenfrei

Everyday Anarchism

Show Notes

Robin Schuldenfrei rejoins me to talk more Bauhaus! In this episode, we discuss her book Luxury and Modernism, covering the complexities of the Bauhaus, which had a leftwing ethos but produced luxury objects, and made them by hand to appear machine made. Robin talks us through how the contradiction between luxury and egalitarianism ran from Morris's arts and crafts movement to the Bauhaus, and modernism only became a truly "everyday" part of life during the colossal expansion of middle-class wealth in the midcentury, as celebrated by Life magazine and recreated in the show Mad Men

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Oct 14, 2026

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Sep 23, 2026

The audio recording of a talk I gave at Oriel College, Oxford University. Thank you to Nick Gaskill and Oriel for inviting me!

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