The architecture of democracy : American architecture and the legacy of the revolution

This title illustrates how political thoughts and ideals influenced the development of American architecture - in particular the family home. It is bound to get picked up for reviews in architecture press as few books cover this subject area in as much detail. It offers a complete picture through tracing classical Greek and Roman architectural styles through to the modern day. In Architecture of Democracy, Allan Greenberg, one of the most important architects at work today, eloquently explores his lifelong fascination with the relationship of American architecture, and its architects, to the genesis and form of that architecture to the ideals of the American Revolution. Architecture of Democracy elucidates this relationship through informed, intelligent prose and sumptuous illustrations. The basic building block of American architecture was not the king's palace or the church, as in Europe, but was instead the modest single-family house. And, predominate architecture of the private home, of the school house, the state house and court house, and even the President's House, were the motifs and styles of the great republics of classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, which were employed to express the ideals of this new democratic republic. Because, in a democracy the government is the People, the citizens' houses, i.e., the buildings for institutions and government, became the architectural equivalent of the royal palace. And, for the first time in history, the ordinary person's house became a work of architecture.