Synopses & Reviews
Sites Unseen examines the complex intertwining of race and architecture in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American culture, the period not only in which American architecture came of age professionally in the U.S. but also in which ideas about architecture became a prominent part of broader conversations about American culture, history, politics, and--although we have not yet understood this clearly--race relations. This rich and copiously illustrated interdisciplinary study explores the ways that American writing between roughly 1850 and 1930 concerned itself, often intensely, with the racial implications of architectural space primarily, but not exclusively, through domestic architecture.
In addition to identifying an archive of provocative primary materials, Sites Unseen draws significantly on important recent scholarship in multiple fields ranging from literature, history, and material culture to architecture, cultural geography, and urban planning. Together the chapters interrogate a variety of expressive American vernacular forms, including the dialect tale, the novel of empire, letters, and pulp stories, along with the plantation cabin, the West Indian cottage, the Latin American plaza, and the “Oriental” parlor. These are some of the overlooked plots and structures that can and should inform a more comprehensive consideration of the literary and cultural meanings of American architecture. Making sense of the relations between architecture, race, and American writing of the long nineteenth century--in their regional, national, and hemispheric contexts--Sites Unseen provides a clearer view not only of this catalytic era but also more broadly of what architectural historian Dell Upton has aptly termed the social experience of the built environment.
Review
“True to its title, Sites Unseen offers a remarkably fresh, provocative perspective on the role of race in American literature by grounding it securely in architectural history and making us see domesticity, in its many social and cultural dimensions, in an entirely new light.”-Eric J. Sundquist,Johns Hopkins University
Synopsis
In 1995, Republicans came to power in the United States with an ambitious program proposing to embrace a degree of laissez- faire economics unknown for generations anywhere in the industrialized world. Simultaneously, politicians, entrepreneurs, and economists championed the new bastions of unregulated capitalism that sprung up in such unfamiliar precincts as Beijing and Moscow. Yet to date many free-market economic policies, be it in Prague or here in America, have not lived up to their initial promises. In fact, it has become a common joke in Russia that capitalism has succeeded in making communism look good, a feat unaccomplished by the Kremlin in its 70 year reign.
In Making Capitalism Work, Leonard and Mark Silk analyze the failures and successes of capitalism as seen most recently in the former Soviet Bloc, Japan, China, the European Community and the United States. While recognizing that capitalism has been successful in a number of countries, the authors point out that overly simplistic policies advocating an unfettered capitalism ignore too large a range of issues central to the formation of any moral economic system. Viewing capitalism as simply one of a number of economic systems, Leonard and Mark Silk address such issues as the obligation of the rich to the poor, the responsibility of the state to insulate its citizens from market fluctuations, the responsibility of present generations to provide for future ones, and whether economic systems can set the proper extent and limits of individual rights and freedoms.
An important, concise, thought-provoking book this is the last book Leonard Silk wrote before his death late last year and has been completed here by his son, Mark.
About the Author
Leonard Silk was economics columnist of The New York Times and Chairman of the Editorial Board of Business Week. Mark Silk is a staff writer for the Atlantic Journal - Constitution and coauthor, with his father, of The American Establishment. Contract for Making Capitalism Work is with:
Director of Publication
The Twentieth Century Fund
41 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
Table of Contents
The march of capitalism / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- The challenge of slow growth / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- American contracts / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- The Soviet bloc in transition / Bernard Wasow -- The Chinese puzzle / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- Japan at the crossroads / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- Whither northern Europe? / Jonas Pontusson -- Military spending as industrial policy / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- The future of capitalism / Leonard Silk and Mark Silk -- Epilogue : the (political) economy of capitalism / Robert Heilbroner.