Review of John A. Walker "Design History and the History of Design" and Peter Dormer "The Meanings of Modern Design"

Bruno Giberti, University of California - Berkeley

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NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Bruno Giberti was affiliated with the University of California - Berkeley. Currently, April 2008, he is the Associate Head of the Architecture Department and Professor of Architecture at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.

Abstract

The history of design is not a new subject. It has been the theme of two well-known if not always well-loved pillars of the historical literature, Nikolaus Pevsner's Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936) and Sigfried Giedion's Mechanization Takes Command (1948). In contrast, design history is a relatively new discipline, well established in Britain but still forming in this country. The time is right, then, for a book like Design History and the History of Design, in which John A. Walker surveys the landscape of this field for its students.