America Builds

Architecture requires a broad definition. It involves more than simply questions of style, esoteric theory, or technical progress; it is the physical record of a culture's relationship to its technology and the land, and, most important, of the system of values concerning men's relationships with one another. Hence this volume, like my Concise History of American Architecture, deals with all the spatial and environmental arts. Conceived as a companion volume to the Concise History, this similarly surveys architecture, landscape architecture, and planning from the arrival of European settlers up to 1980. Like the Concise History, this sampling of source documents is offered in the hope of spurring the reader to further investigation.