Review of Samuel G. White and Elizabeth White's "McKim, Mead & White: The Masterworks" and Kristen Schaffer's "Daniel H. Burnham: Visionary Architect and Planner"

Bruno Giberti, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

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Publisher's website: http://www.sah.org

Abstract

As any undergraduate knows, architectural history is a relentlessly visual subject. It is not impossible, but exceedingly difficult to make a convincing argument through words alone. Words must talk to pictures, in the absence of buildings, and pictures must join together to form a visual argument that is an analogue of the text. What then are we to do with the big picture books favored by publishers like Rizzoli? These serve a function and have an audience, which includes many historians, some of whom are their authors; but it is not the same function as an academic publication, which rarely graces the tops of coffee tables.