Feature Articles Annotated Bibliography Book Reviews What's Hot Submission Form		Reviews on Books about Architecture Arts & Crafts|Architecture|Books|Cookie Jars|Decorative Arts|European Glass, Pottery, Ceramics|FolkArt|General Antiques|Pattern Glass|Pottery Vernacular Architecture Henry Glassie Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000. 197 pages, photographs and drawings by the author, $16.95 (pa). Reviewed by Scott H. Suter Deep into this essay on the study of buildings, Henry Glassie states the point of his entire book: "Architecture provides a prime resource to the one who would write a better history" (146). His assertion is eloquently supported on the pages leading up to this summary statement, and those who have read Glassie's previous works will not be surprised at the quality of both his arguments and his prose. He brings his thirty-five years of fieldwork to bear here as he discusses the meaning of the phrase "vernacular architecture," demonstrating why the topic deserves study. Moreover, he demonstrates that buildings that have been previously ignored are not in fact unimportant, but instead offer us a more complete understanding of the cultures that produced them. Defining the term vernacular, Glassie suggests that the label may be only a temporary title that separates buildings of academic "grandeur or originality" from those that "embody values alien to those cherished in the academy"--values that are more comprehensive. He continues, noting that this approach to architectural study "favors completeness, recognizes diversity, and seeks ways to use buildings as evidence in order to tell better versions of the human story" (21). While this may seem a daunting task, it is one that Glassie is certainly qualified to undertake, and one to which he applies his considerable scholarship. Using a comparative approach, he demonstrates, for instance, the distinctions between production that is local and environmental and those that are artificial and commercial. The essay offers numerous examples in support of these distinctions, interweaving cultural observations with those specifically related to buildings; thus demonstrating Glassie's belief that a close look at common architecture will reveal much about the culture that produces and uses such buildings. Divided into fifteen sections, the one headed "An Entry to History" offers insight into Glassie's own odyssey through the study of buildings, providing the vehicle through which he spins his history of house type development. Again offering a comparative approach he focuses on America, but demonstrates that a study of common buildings and their changes offer the most democratic story of a group's history. Supported throughout with vivid color photographs, black and white images as well as the author's own drawings, the book is visually pleasing as well. For anyone interested in architecture, history, or cultural studies, this book must be read. It will, at the least, stimulate thoughts on a complex topic, and cause one to look around with a fresh set of eyes. Arts & Crafts|Architecture|Books|Cookie Jars|Decorative Arts|European Glass, Pottery, Ceramics|FolkArt|General Antiques|Pattern Glass|Pottery