Journal of Design History ed. by Christopher Bailey

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 135 tions of what he is saying for the student of the history of design, of manufacturing, of product innovation, and of technological culture generally are considerable. Robert Friedel Dr. Friedel teaches the history of technology at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book was a catalog for the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition “A Material World.” Journal of Design History. Vol. 1, nos. 1—4. Edited by Christopher Bailey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp. 258; illustra­ tions, notes. Paper. Annual subscription (quarterly issue): £35.00 United Kingdom; $72.00 North America; £45.00 elsewhere. As anyone who is on the Greybooks mailing list of publications in art and design can testify, there is certainly no dearth of new titles or reissued old titles in topics related to design history. Given the propensity for authors to illustrate specific applications (or, less often, discuss conceptual approaches) between hard covers, it is surprising that so few journals exist in this area. This is not to say that the subject goes untreated in existingjournals. A number of them, Technology and Culture included, deal with issues relevant to design history. One thinks especially of Design Quarterly, issued at an economical $22.00 a year by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which since 1946 has frequently integrated design his­ tory into its discussions; and the more recent (1984— ) Design Issues: A Journal of History, Theory and Criticism, published by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Coverage is uneven, however, and readers in this area have generally had to comb the literatures of a number of fields: technology, material culture, anthropology, art, architecture, the dec­ orative arts, graphics, interior design, and industrial design. The search leads to the acquisition of a wide variety of interesting infor­ mation, but it is also time-consuming. For this reason, any journal promising to focus on this amorphous topic would be welcome. In the case of the publication here reviewed, the welcome is especially warm. Its sponsoring organization, the Design History Society, based in Great Britain and now slightly over a decade old, has proved its worth by organizing a number of ground-breaking confer­ ences and colloquia in this developing held. Its editorial and advisory boards are staffed by scholars of international reputation. And its concept of design as a socioeconomic activity promises to unify potentially sectarian disciplines within design and to provide scholars working in related fields with a new forum for research. Only its subscription price (high, and by the nature of things bound to become higher still) is unwelcome. 136 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE For the money, the first-year subscriber to this new journal received two single issues and a double issue, altogether fourteen articles and more than twenty book reviews. The emphasis is uniformly on events, movements, and designers of the postindustrial age in Western Europe; but as they make clear in their policy statement, the editors do “seek to encourage contributions on design in pre-industrial periods and non-European societies, as well as on hitherto neglected or unfamiliar areas and topics.” In general, the articles in the first two issues explore the literature and theories of design history, including an overview of the discipline in America by Victor Margolin (pp. 5172 ) and a discussion by Sean Cubitt of semiotics as a method of interpretation (pp. 127-39). The double issue, the first of many “ ‘special’ issues devoted to particular areas, periods or themes” announced by the editors, contains six articles focusing on 20th-century Germany. Subthemes are design education (particularly at the Bauhaus and HfG Ulm) and the relationship between politics and design, between politics and education, and between education and the marketplace. Technology and Culture readers might be especially interested in “The Politics of German Railway Design” by Christopher Harvie (pp. 235—47). Two articles—Nicolas Bullock’s “ ‘First the Kitchen. . . ’ ” (pp. 177-92) and Gunter Berghaus’s “Girlkultur” (pp. 193-219)—may appeal to (or appall) those in women’s studies. Many of the articles are illustrated, but in general the grainy black-and-white photographs add little to the text. Exceptions are those accompanying Katalin Kerserti’s article on...