Midcentury modern style reappeared on our radar screens more than a decade ago, but the wildly popular show Mad Men has pushed it even farther into the limelight. Just as the name implies, it spanned a period of roughly two and a half decades in the middle of the 20th century, from the mid-1940s to 1970. Its uncomplicated, fresh aesthetic arose from a desire to propel postwar America into the modern era and recast design through a bold new lens.