reading (Seven American Utopias)
Oct. 28th, 2006 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eor"Seven American Utopias" is a lot of book at only 350 pages.
No, I'm not going to talk in this review about the individual communities surveyed. That is several discussions for another time and another place. Here I'll stick to the book and presentation.
The first three chapters serve as introduction and summary of the author's themes and theories. For me this section was a tough read. There are a lot of facts and comparisons mixed in here, but the way they are put together make for slow going. Many things are referred to which will get covered in later chapters, but unless you're familiar with the material already you're left to just nod and pretend you understand the examples and the contrasts that are drawn. Frankly, I thought this part of the book would never end. It's like listening someone talk fluently in ancient Babylonian. I had no doubt there was a lot of research that went into the writing, but I could not put the parts together into a sensible picture, just glimpses and fragments.
Chapters 4 through 10 detail the seven utopias mentioned in the title, one per chapter. This is where the book starts to roll. There is a clear history of the development of the group, their society, their building, their economics, and their demise. The author does a great job of bringing out contrasts and similarities between the various groups and showing the influence of one group on the next where applicable. It was fascinating reading, full of thought provoking material on architecture, sociology, and psychology. To get the full worth of this material you really have to chew on it for a long time and savor different aspects of each story. A whole lot to think about here.
The final two chapters are a summary of modern communal activity (as of the 1970's) and the conclusion. The summary of modern activity covers too much ground in too short a space to have the same kind of value the main chapters have. The author's points are spelled out by selected examples and you can't really draw any different conclusions of your own. That said, it would have taken another book, or two, to go into the same detail on modern activity, so I don't begrudge the brevity. The conclusion tries to draw the reader to a new paradigm where client demand produces a change in architects' "normal" designs, but after reading all of the epitaphs at the ends of chapters four through ten, I'm not sure how many readers will sign on with optimism.
Despite the difficulty of the first few chapters, this book was fascinating. The author overemphasizes some of her themes in places, but that can't dim the sheer volume of knowledge contained here. Anyone interested in social planning, design, or architecture for humans could get a lot out of this book. Really, I think almost anyone could learn a lot from this book, but some people may not want to bother with the work.
45. Dolores Hayden "Seven American Utopias: The Architecture of Communitarian Socialism, 1790-1975"
No, I'm not going to talk in this review about the individual communities surveyed. That is several discussions for another time and another place. Here I'll stick to the book and presentation.
The first three chapters serve as introduction and summary of the author's themes and theories. For me this section was a tough read. There are a lot of facts and comparisons mixed in here, but the way they are put together make for slow going. Many things are referred to which will get covered in later chapters, but unless you're familiar with the material already you're left to just nod and pretend you understand the examples and the contrasts that are drawn. Frankly, I thought this part of the book would never end. It's like listening someone talk fluently in ancient Babylonian. I had no doubt there was a lot of research that went into the writing, but I could not put the parts together into a sensible picture, just glimpses and fragments.
Chapters 4 through 10 detail the seven utopias mentioned in the title, one per chapter. This is where the book starts to roll. There is a clear history of the development of the group, their society, their building, their economics, and their demise. The author does a great job of bringing out contrasts and similarities between the various groups and showing the influence of one group on the next where applicable. It was fascinating reading, full of thought provoking material on architecture, sociology, and psychology. To get the full worth of this material you really have to chew on it for a long time and savor different aspects of each story. A whole lot to think about here.
The final two chapters are a summary of modern communal activity (as of the 1970's) and the conclusion. The summary of modern activity covers too much ground in too short a space to have the same kind of value the main chapters have. The author's points are spelled out by selected examples and you can't really draw any different conclusions of your own. That said, it would have taken another book, or two, to go into the same detail on modern activity, so I don't begrudge the brevity. The conclusion tries to draw the reader to a new paradigm where client demand produces a change in architects' "normal" designs, but after reading all of the epitaphs at the ends of chapters four through ten, I'm not sure how many readers will sign on with optimism.
Despite the difficulty of the first few chapters, this book was fascinating. The author overemphasizes some of her themes in places, but that can't dim the sheer volume of knowledge contained here. Anyone interested in social planning, design, or architecture for humans could get a lot out of this book. Really, I think almost anyone could learn a lot from this book, but some people may not want to bother with the work.
45. Dolores Hayden "Seven American Utopias: The Architecture of Communitarian Socialism, 1790-1975"
