Thefirstsupermarketsappearedi lltheU nitedStates
inth eI Y50s ,Withth eirhugevarietyoffoods and
ot her consumergoods,supermarketsg;l\'l'shoppers
a m u chwiderran geofchoices.Inth el Y50smany
American sS;l\Vth eir loadedshelvesandfullfree zers
as viviblc proofo f the superiorityofth e American
wayoforgan izin ga natio n's economiclife .N ot
surp risingly,whentheSovietleade rKhrush chev
visitedth eUnitedStates in195Y,o neoftill'places he
wastaken tovisit was asupermarket!
When supermarketsp roveda commercial successin
th e UnitedStarestheyquicklyspreadtoother
prosperouscountries,first i nEuropeand thenIII
o therpartsoftheworldSo didanotherfeatureof
138
America ncitiesintheseyears- g ro upso fta ll,
sh i ningbuildingsw ithouterwallsofglJssand metal.
13yth e1980ssuchbuildi ngsweredominati ngcity
center s allovertheworld.Tomanypeo ple theywere
imagesoflarc-ewcnnctb-ccnru ry mo dcmitv,Yet
th eir orig ins can be (facedback mor ethanahundred
yearstotheAmericanM id w est.
D ur ing thet H80sa nu m be rofhigh,narrow
bu i ld ingsbegantorisein th e cente rofChicago.
Sim ilarb uild ings- sotallrharpeoplecalledthem
"skyscrapers"- weresoonrisingoverether
American cities. Inthefirsthalfofthetwentieth
ceIllu rythcvbecameoneoftheprincipalvisual
symbolsofthemodernUnitedStates.