Review: American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture, by Alice T. Friedman

Abstract

Alice T. Friedman . American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture . New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010, ix +262 pp., 40 color and 125 b/w illus. $65.00, ISBN 9780300116540 You might imagine, from a quick glance at the dust jacket, that this volume would fall into the category of coffee-table book. Certainly the glossy image of poolside entertaining at Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs would suggest a title like Hot Resorts of Southern California or The New American Desert Style . The first part of the title, American Glamour , rendered in large letters that pick up the tint of the swimming pool, does nothing to dispel this impression. Title and image appear calculated to suggest that this is not a stuffy work of scholarship. Left at that, the reader might well assume it was another breezy romp through the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Only with the second line of the title is there an indication of how much higher the author has set her sights. In fact, this book is one of the most intriguing and compelling studies to date on modern architecture, at least on a key group of American midcentury examples of it. American architecture after World War II has inspired a great wave of recent work ranging from the ponderously erudite to the breathlessly enthusiastic. With this book Alice Friedman, a professor of art history at Wellesley College, weighs in …