In his new documentary, photographer Don Freeman explores the homes designed and lived in by notable American artists, revealing the inventiveness derived from the dialogue between each artist's practice and the construction of their handmade homes. Ranging from the romantic (Hudson River School painter Frederic Church's Olana, framing views of the Catskills to echo his paintings), to the futuristic (Paolo Soleri's silt-casted structure Cosanti growing...

When, in October 1517, Martin Luther pinned his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, he shattered the foundations of western Christendom. The Reformation of doctrine and practice that followed Luther's seismic action, and protest against the sale of indulgences, fragmented the Church and overturned previously accepted certainties and priorities. But it did more, challenging the relationship between spiritual and secular...

"With rich illustrations and evocative narrative, McAuliffe portrays Paris during the fabulous 1920s, when art and architecture, music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and behavior all took dramatically new forms"--Provided by publisher.

"By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome--celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi (the head of the world)--had lost its preeminent place in Europe. Then a new Pope, Alexander VII, fired with religious zeal, political guile, and a mania for creating new architecture, determined to restore the prestige of his church...

"In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. Edith was a woman ahead of her time--unmarried, she was a distinguished medical researcher, whose discoveries put her in contention for the Nobel Prize, as well as an accomplished violinist, translator, and poet. The two quickly began an intimate relationship, spending weekends...

"For nearly a decade, Pulitzer prize-winning critic Justin Davidson has explained New York, the city, to his readers at New York, the magazine. He has visited new and preserved buildings, explored neighborhoods in mid-transformation; interviewed architects, developers, and urban thinkers; and tracked the city's constant change. Now, he distills those experiences into Magnetic City, an ambler's guide to New York--the city around us, the one that's...

"Bradt's new guide to the Outer Hebrides: The Western Isles of Scotland, from Lewis to Barra, by experienced writer and journalist Mark Rowe is the only full-size guide to focus solely on the islands of Lewis, Harris, St Kilda, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay. Background information is included, from geography and geology to art and architecture, with significant coverage of wildlife, too, as well as all the practical...

Ancient Egypt has been a focus of awe and fascination from the age of the Pyramids to the present day. In 'Egyptomania' Ronald H. Fritze takes us on a historical journey to unearth the Egypt of the imagination, a land of weird gods, murky magic, secret knowledge, marvellous pyramids, enigmatic sphinxes, monumental obelisks, immense wealth and mystifying mummies. Egypt has always exerted a powerful attraction in popular and high culture, and an array...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has long been at the forefront of design. The interdisciplinary design firm, founded in 1979, first stirred interest with its provocative exhibitions of theoretically based projects that blurred the boundaries between art and architecture. In 1999, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, the firm's founding principals, were awarded the prestigious "genius" grant by the MacArthur Foundation, in recognition of their commitment...

A fascinating history of crime and punishment, Gaslight Lawyers paints a serious but entertaining portrait of colorful characters, courtroom drama, and the emerging importance of forensic science and medical-legal jurisprudence in Gilded Age New York City. From the 1870s to the early 1900s, post-Civil War New York City was becoming a wonder city of commerce and invention, art and architecture, and emerging global prominence. It was also a city of...