Twentieth-Century American Architecture

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

Author Biography

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.