Twentieth-Century American Architecture: The Buildings and Their Makers - Softcover

Wiseman, Carter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393320545 ISBN 13: 9780393320541

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

Synopsis

An authoritative and richly illustrated narrative history of the buildings that shaped the American century and the architects who gave them form.

Carter Wiseman presents an original, readable, and literate overview of the major figures, influential movements, and landmark buildings that have defined American architecture over the past hundred years. In a survey that is "as good . . . as anyone is likely to write . . . accurate in its facts, wise and fair in its judgments"(New York Times), he focuses to a large extent on architecture's makers--the commanding figures who by force of personality and sheer artistic ability indelibly influenced its progress: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, Robert Venturi, Louis Kahn, Frank Gehry. The triumph of modernism; the growth of architectural preservation; the eclipse of the practical arts by money, theory, and abstraction; and the uncertain future of architecture in a country that celebrates both individualism and community are just some of the issues addressed in this highly praised work. Originally published in hardcover under the title Shaping a Nation. 250 illustrations

About this title

About the Author:

Carter Wiseman teaches history and criticism at the Yale School of architecture. He lives in Weston, Connecticut. He is also the author of Twentieth-Century American Architecture.

Review:

Clear, vigorous, and refreshingly independent. -- The American Enterprise

Displays a penchant for clarity that is most helpful in sorting through the convoluted rhetorical pyrotechnics dispensed by the architectural vanguard as architectural theory. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In this insightful survey of 20th-century American architecture, critic Carter Wiseman profiles some 200 architects--from Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright to Louis Kahn and Frank Gehry--and examines their work. Yet despite its encyclopedic scope and value as a reference, this is not a dry, scholarly book....Writing with depth and good humor, Wiseman deftly chronicles one of the most spectacular periods of this country's architectural history. -- Architectural Record, Christine Liotta Sheridan, January 1999

The best and most accessible account of American architecture from the late 1930s to the early 90s currently available. -- Times Literary Supplement

This book is about as good a summary of American architecture of this century as anyone is likely to write. -- The New York Times Book Review, Robert Campbell

Wiseman's descriptions and deep pleasure in his subject infuse [this book] with the energy of a well-told tale. -- Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0393320545
• ISBN 13: 9780393320541
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370