A HISTORY OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE: Buildings in their Cultural and Technological Context. - Review - book review

Architectural Review, The, Dec, 1999 by Ed Robbins

By Mark Gelernter. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1999. [pounds]50

This richly illustrated and broad survey including discussions of native, vernacular, traditional and elite styles, traces American architecture from 12,000 BC to 1998. Gelernter discusses what he considers the dominant social, political, and philosophical forces of the day, as well as parallel developments in Europe. European influences on American architectural thinking and design are examined, as well as the unique ways in which American architects have borrowed, adapted and transformed European forms.

The most compelling parts of the book are Gelernter's continuing reminder that no age was dominated by just one style of architecture and his discussion of important and influential styles that Modernist histories of architecture either dismiss or ignore. In America, he tells us, not only were there competing styles, but vernacular, public and elite architecture often varied regionally -- by English, French and Spanish and at times, native architectural traditions.

What makes the book so bold and broad in its sweep also makes it, at times, overly simplistic -- a problem with many introductory texts, For one example, while Gelernter recognizes that no one architectural style corresponds to a particular social or political system, he never introduces a style that does not have an easy and unmediated correlation to a relatively simplistic description of some political or social form or idea. Nonetheless, as an overview for the layperson or starting student, this would not be a bad place to begin.