Customer Reviews

American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader

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Picked up this book browsing at the recent publications table at the Society for Architectural Historians of Australia & New Zealand conference, and ended up late for the next session of papers! Despite its rather drab cover, it achieves just what editor Keith Eggener sets out to do - assembling essays of 'significant scholarship...that are concise, lively, accessible and engaging.' The ambitious breadth of topics doesn't in any way compromise the rigour of the selection, and there is a great mix of familiar writers and new ones (at least for those of us in the Antopides who struggle to keep up with what's going on on the rest of the world). Liked very much Eggener's previous book on Luis Barragan and the introductory essay displays his characteristic clarity and umnpretentious scholarship. Favourite essay so far? Difficult to pick between the old friend of Alice Friedman's 'People who live in glass houses' and a new one to me, though quite old, Neil Levine, writing about Venturi. An elegant and generous book.

This was the textbook for my American Architecture class. If you want to know about this topic, this is the book for you.