Shaping a Nation: Twentieth-century American Architecture and Its Makers Book

An authoritative and richly illustrated narrative history of the buildings that shaped the American century and the architects who gave them form. Carter Wiseman, one of this country's most respected architecture critics and historians, here presents an original, readable, and crisply articulated account of the major figures, influential movements, and landmark buildings that have defined the American architecture of the past hundred years. He focuses to a large extent on its makers--the commanding figures who by force of personality and sheer artistic ability have indelibly influenced its progress: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, Robert Venturi, Louis Kahn, and 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--these are just some of the issues Wiseman addresses with a scholar's learning, a journalist's flair, and a critic's firm and often witty judgment. The result is a book that will inform and delight--and will remain a standard work for years to come.