- 01/03/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Let’s get acquainted with several works and viewpoints on American architecture. The first work under consideration is short pamphlet called “American Taste” (1929) by Lewis Mumford. As the author is a well-known historian and philosopher of technology and science, who has studied cities and urban architecture, we have to know his ideas and analyze them. In “American Taste” Mumford criticizes American architecture, he considered American taste to be “sickly and derivative”. The author thinks, that from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century American architecture was changed, and these changes were for the worse. Mumford wanted to create a uniquely American aesthetic, divorced from imported past and firmly rooted in the tenets of participatory democracy. His viewpoint on the topic is very interesting and his style is pleasant to read.
Next information, I’d want to stop your attention on, is “The theory of the leisure class” by Thorstein Bunde Veblen. Despite the fact, that it is written in the style of satire, it requires our serious analysis. In his book, Veblen determines the value of leisure class from the economic point of view. Also he pays attention to the development of the class, its every day life and non-economic features of its social life. The book is interesting because it describes author’s personal experience and observations.
The last work, that I want to mention is “The Tastemakers”(1954) by Russel Lynes. This author was one of the most respected “arbiters” of taste and mores, especially in the decorative arts and architecture. The book contains wise and witty thoughts and observations on the preferences of Americans. The author believes that taste can be divided into three categories: Highbrow, Middlebrow and Lowbrow, each of them also has its own sub-sections. The book deals with the history of American popular taste in different spheres, like architecture, art and decoration. The easy manner of style gives us full impression of what people that make our taste are like and who real tastemakers are.
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