The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place - Brossura

Dolan, Michael

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1592282717 ISBN 13: 9781592282715

Casa editrice: Lyons Pr, 2004

Riassunto

The American Porch, featured on NPR Weekend Edition, CBS Sunday Morning, USA Today, and in the Chicago Tribune, relates the colorful and surprising history of the porch in a lively journey through architecture, literature, film, photography, and pop culture, from ancient Greece to modern day.
Solidly researched and engagingly written, The American Porch weaves many narratives into its larger story-how the word "stoic" originated, how James Ives got Nathaniel Currier to begin chronicling ordinary American life, how the "front porch campaign" became a staple of American politics, why filmmakers and novelists love the porch, and how the porch, after vanishing from American domestic architecture after World War II, has made a comeback thanks to preservationists and the New Urbanist movement in town planning and domestic architecture.
The book begins with the renovation of Dolan's own porch, which led him on a journey of inquiry that took unexpected directions. According to Dolan, "When my wife and I rebuilt our porch, I felt a very deep emotion, as if I was reconnecting with something. I hadn't grown up in houses with front porches-my folks had a brick colonial and later a Cape Cod, then a rambler. I started wondering why I felt such a powerful connection to the experience of being on a front porch."
Readers of The American Porch will understand and celebrate that connection-in the evening hours on their front porches, if they are lucky.
The book begins with the renovation of Dolan's own porch, which led him on a journey of inquiry that took unexpected directions. According to Dolan, "When my wife and I rebuilt our porch, I felt a very deep emotion, as if I was reconnecting with something. I hadn't grown up in houses with front porches--my folks had a brick colonial and later a Cape Cod, then a rambler. I started wondering why I felt such a powerful connection to the experience of being on a front porch."

Readers of THE AMERICAN PORCH will understand and celebrate that connection--in the evening hours on their front porches, if they are lucky.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Michael Dolan has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and other publications. His documentary script and publication credits include many television programs aired by National Geographic Explorer and the Discovery Channel. His email address is emdolan@erols.com.

Dalla quarta di copertina:

"A wry, well-researched look at the place and the people who rocked, talked and courted on [the American porch] for three centuries."
Parade magazine

"Ease back in your rocker with a bourbon and a bloodhound by your side, and drink in this panoramic history of America's noblest, and most eminently suitable, haunt."
Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Stomping Grounds

"In lively, spirited prose that blends the personal and the historical, my friend Mike Dolan has traced the path by which the porch found its place in the world and a home in the soul of America."
Mike Burnett, executive producer of Survivor

"The porch is making a comeback, gradually replacing its humbler rival the deck, which the traditionalist Dolan refers to as the platform shoe or leisure suit of American architecture."
Time magazine

Like the pivotal clue in a Conan Doyle story, the American porch hides itself in plain sight. But it is a national treasure, one with a colorful and surprising history. In this lively book, Michael Dolan draws on architecture, literature, film, photography, and pop culture, from ancient Greece to modern day, to show how the porch evolved into an icon of Americana. There¿s a personal side to all this, too: Dolan designed and oversaw construction of a classic four-pillared front porch to grace his 1926 bungalow in his hometown of Washington, D.C. The story of that porch's decay and restoration not only inspired the book but serves as a touchstone in the author's story.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Lyons Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1592282717
• ISBN 13: 9781592282715
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 346