From Autos to Architecture
Fordism and Architectural Aesthetics in the Twentieth Century
Publication date 10/1/2009
6 x 9 inches (15.2 x 22.9 cm), Hardcover
400 pages, 80 b/w illustrations
Carton qty: 14;
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One of the most interesting questions in architectural history is why modern architecture emerged from the war-ravaged regions of central Europe and not the United States, whose techniques of mass production and mechanical products so inspired the first generation of modern architects like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius. In From Autos to Architecture, sociologist David Gartman offers a critical social history that shows how Fordist mass production and industrial architecture in America influenced European designers to an extent previously not understood. Drawing on Marxist economics, the Frankfurt School, and French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, From Autos to Architecture deftly illustrates the different class structures and struggles of America and Europe. Examining architecture in the context of social conflicts, From Autos to Architecture offers a critical alternative to standard architectural histories focused on aesthetics alone.
David Gartman is a professor of sociology at the University of South Alabama.
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The Art Shelf, The Midwest Book Review:
"From Autos to Architecture: Fordism and Architectural Aesthetics in the 20th Century comes from a sociologist who provides a social history linking Fordist mass production and industrial architecture in America to European designer developments. It crosses disciplines from art and architecture to economics and world history to provide a scholarly survey of architecture and social conflicts, and is a pick for any college-level arts or social history."
— James A. Cox
Detroit Gets Booked, Metro Times:
"Some auto titles may appeal to more than motorheads. Two books in particular discuss old Henry Ford's influence on architecture and society. From Autos to Architecture, by David Gartman, argues that Ford's mass production techniques helped inspire the clean lines of modernist architects."
— Michael Jackman
"In From Autos to Architecture, historian David Gartman offers a critical social history that shows how Fordist mass production and industrial architecture in America influenced European designers to an extent previously not understood."
Winter Books Roundup, Metropolis Magazine:
"Gartman, an automobile enthusiast and a sociology professor at the University of South Alabama, marries those two disparate interests in From Autos to Architecture. The book asks why the International Style developed where it did, in a post-war Europe whose manufacturing technology lagged far behind that of America and whose emphasis on traditional craft contrasted sharply with an American reverence of mass production. Not surprisingly, the key object in this historyand the product that most aptly symbolizes modernism and American culture in the middle of the last centuryis the car. Gartman uses the aesthetics of Fordism and the evolving cultural reaction to that movement to explain why architects first embraced, and eventually rejected, automobile production as a philosophical and aesthetic exemplar.."
— George Beane
American Journal of Sociology:
"A tour de force, a massive, fascinating, and successful attempt to put 20th-century architecture in the context of changing class relations... Bold and thought provoking. "
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