The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 19 October 1998
by Lewis Mumford
In this book, first published in 1924, Mumford takes the reader on a journey through the history of American architecture from pre-colonial times to the turn of the 20th century. His insight into the built, social and physical environment is acute. His criticism of architecture's response to the environment is equally biting. That architecture so rarely relates to the people occupying it and the purpose to which it is put, remains a significant problem alienating people from their environment. This is architecture for photographers (pick up any glossy architectural magazine and find countless pictures of pristine and empty buildings). That Mumford points this out in 1924 (re-iterated in this 1954 second edition) and in a mere 113 pages, among other issues of environment and building, makes this book somewhat depressing. Many of the author's hopeful predictions have never come to pass, and many of his depressing observations about the state of architecture and city planning in his time remain entirely relevant today. Mumford's language here is uneven, sometimes dense and difficult to read, but is just as often clear and engaging. As an historical document, this should be in any architect's or architectural historian's collection. History repeats itself, and architecture is more guilty of perpetuating that fact than most other fields.
Also by Mumford: [The Golden Day] [The City in History]
See also: [Sidewalk Critic]