Tom Wolfe, "America's most skillful satirist" (The Atlantic Monthly), examines the strange saga of American architecture in this sequel to The Painted Word.
From Bauhaus to Our House
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A search-and-destroy mission against architectural pretensions . . . a funny book."--New York
"Full of insight . . . marvelously right."--People
"Wolfe's delightfully witty, biting history of modern architecture is a scintillating high comedy of big money, manners, and massive manipulation of public taste."--Publishers Weekly
"No wonder . . . this book is the hottest topic in Manhattan's architectural salons."--The New York Times Book Review
"Tom Wolfe has squeezed a funny tale out of glass and stone. . . hilarious."--The Wall Street Journal
"Sharp serpent's-tooth wit, useful cultural insight, and snazzy zip! pop! writing."--Playboy
Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Tom Wolfe is the author of more than a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man in Full. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee University and a Ph.D. in American studies at Yale. He lives in New York City.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
By J. R. Muller
Format:Paperback
Tom Wolfe is without a doubt the most honest and humorously penetrating social critic since Mark Twain. He writes what we would love to say and in a manner any of us would give our pinkies to employ. This book, though not as good as others, goes right to the heart of the problems with modern architecture that have plagued our cities and our aesthetic sense. Lest some of you think I'm a cultural philistine, I am myself an architecture student, and I can say that Wolfe's skewerings of the modern profession are so accurate as to be almost omniscient. He rightfully lampoons the excessive intellectualization, the hackneyed leftism, and reverse snobbery of architectects since the 20's while showing the lamentable effects of these traits. His analysis, though shallow, is regretably dead accurate for he understands the social and intellectual impulses (and justifications) that have driven the profession since the Bauhaus. Tom Wolfe constantly plays the role of the young boy in "The Emperor's New Clothes" and, once again he is pointing out the laughably naked elite which are producing architecture these days. I do not agree with all of his analysis of certain buildings, but his social critique from the archictural theorists to the clients to the "working class" are all as humorous, sad and accurate as you expect from Wolfe.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By M. Strong
Format:Paperback
From Bauhaus to Our House is inescapably a book about architecture, but it's about more than that, too. Wolfe uses architecture as a lens to magnify a problem you see again and again in human society and human history - group think and mindless following.
I have no architectural background, and found Wolfe's (very) brief history of 20th century Western architecture to be very interesting. I've always wondered how we ended up with so many monotonous and kinda fugly buildings in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. In Bauhaus, Wolfe offers up his explanation in a fun, readable manner.
Beyond that, however, Wolfe also gives you a look at one instance of a rather homogeneous group of people - in this case academic architects - come up with an idea that takes on a life of its own and becomes too powerful for anyone to challenge. Call it group think, peer pressure, mindless following, popular culture or the will of the majority, it's a somewhat frightening process and here Wolfe shows it to us in a case where - thankfully - all we got from it was a lot of ugly buildings.
Recommended.
I have no architectural background, and found Wolfe's (very) brief history of 20th century Western architecture to be very interesting. I've always wondered how we ended up with so many monotonous and kinda fugly buildings in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. In Bauhaus, Wolfe offers up his explanation in a fun, readable manner.
Beyond that, however, Wolfe also gives you a look at one instance of a rather homogeneous group of people - in this case academic architects - come up with an idea that takes on a life of its own and becomes too powerful for anyone to challenge. Call it group think, peer pressure, mindless following, popular culture or the will of the majority, it's a somewhat frightening process and here Wolfe shows it to us in a case where - thankfully - all we got from it was a lot of ugly buildings.
Recommended.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
One doesn't normally think of a book on architecture as being funny, but Wolfe's hilarious evisceration of modern architecture's sacred cows is truly a scream. Wolfe skewers the pretensions and downright foolishness of some of the most famous names in 20th Century architecture, and does so in a manner that is always engaging and fun to read. You may not agree with everything he says, but you certainly won't be bored by his witty and provocative observations. As good as Wolfe the novelist is, Wolfe the essayist is even better.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent summary critique of modernist architecture and applies to...
As a designer of software user experiences, I've seen how modernist tendencies have started to influence products such as Windows 8. I have mixed feelings about that. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Billy Hollis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good book, shipped as described.
I wish I had read this earlier in my arch/UP career. Funny, easy to read, and short narrative of major figures in the history of architecture and urban planning.
Published 3 months ago by Aly
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you want to know all about the real workings of the "Art World"...
It seems that academia and the elites have taken over the art world. A few people define what is "IN" and everything else is "out. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Speedy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, extremely caustic commentary
The book is fun to read. Wolfe, however, is obviously in a hate mode on modernism in architecture which mode don't allow him to see some good bits of it.
Published 4 months ago by Vlad Golovach
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wolfe--Brilliant as Always
As a big fan of Tom Wolfe, it would only be a matter of time before I read this book. Although I don't have much background in the history of architecture, I found this essay in a... Read more
Published 13 months ago by ironman96
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wolfe said everything I ever felt about Mid-Century Modern
From my earliest childhood in the 70's. I despised the ugly, soul-sucking commie block buildings going up around me, especially as they tore down beautiful older buildings to make... Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. STANLEY
4.0 out of 5 stars
'row after mies van der rohe of workers' housing pitched 50 stories !
Tom Wolfe's article for Rolling Stone magazine in the late 50s or early 60s? (now obscure)was one of the finest architecture criticisms of post-war design in America. Read more
Published on April 6, 2011 by Jeffrey L. Blackwell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious, snide and ACCURATE way to learn architecture
Tom Wolfe is well-known for his very snide writing style. He really lets it loose in this short book about architecture. Read more
Published on February 11, 2011 by Mehetabelle
1.0 out of 5 stars
Preaching to the Blind
Wolfe has written a weak book, whether you read it now, or whether you read it, as I did, when I was a graduate student of art history when the book first came out three decades... Read more
Published on November 28, 2010 by Marty
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just fine.
A good book for anyone to read. Book is clean and new as advertised, arrived promptly.
Published on August 3, 2010 by MLG
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