Architecture in the United States, 1800–1850

Abstract

American architectural history took a turn in the 1970s as historians introduced ideas borrowed from social and cultural history, anthropology, and archaeology. A discipline that had largely emphasized descriptive appreciation of high-style designs using art-historical methodology began to recognize social processes and the diversity of architectural producers and users. Women and immigrants of different ethnicities began taking center stage, and, as they did, new classes of buildings came under attention, such as ordinary houses, barns, service stations, and malls. The study of American architectural history became a serious contributor to understanding American social and cultural history. W. Barksdale Maynard's volume focuses on the early nineteenth century and celebrates Anglo-centric high-style art-historical approaches. The strengths of Maynard's book include its rich visual and narrative material, its intensity of detail, and its flawless standards of production. As Maynard notes, the early nineteenth century is less studied by architectural historians than the eighteenth...