From Book News, Inc.
From John Ruskin's "The Nature of Gothic" and Karl Marx's "The Capitalist Character of Manufacture, through writings by Thorstein Veblen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Walter Gropius, Henry Ford, Ralph Nader, R. Buckminster Fuller, and Richard Nixon; editor Gorman (history of art and design, Southern Illinois U.) presents an eclectic history of writings on industrial design from 1851 to 1999. She chose the 62 readings for canonicity and readability, as well as for a diversity of critical approach and "the notoriety of the writer in the field of design and elsewhere" (hence Nixon, the reader might presume).Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Book Description
With input from a diverse range of industry experts/designers, theorists, critics, historians, and curators, this anthology is the first to focus exclusively on the history of industrial design. This pioneering guide traces the entire history of industrial design, industrialization, and mass production from 1850 until today. Sixty comprehensive essays written by designers, theorists, advertisers, historians, and curators detail the most crucial movements, issues, and accomplishments of industrial design. They combine news reports on the very first design workshops, aesthetic manifestos, lectures, and more from the biggest names in the field: William Morris, Henry Dreyfuss, and Victor Papanek, to name only a few. The Industrial Design Reader is an excellent resource for educators, students, and practicing designers.


From the Publisher
A Time Machine for Industrial Design Carma R. Gorman Brings Back to Life Familiar Voices in New Anthology on Industrial Design History Remember Richard Nixon’s address to the nation during the energy crisis of 1973? Industrial design history is chock-full of speeches and statements that couldn’t feel timelier in light of today’s issues. Yet to get to these sources, readers often have to shuffle through dimly lit library floors or dusty newspaper archives. THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN READER, a new book edited by Carma R. Gorman, promises relief to designers and historians who want to connect with their field’s rich past. Gorman has assembled sixty primary-source essays from 150 years of industrial design history— providing access to some of the most memorable and hard-to-find documents of this fascinating field. THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN READER is co-published by Allworth Press and the Design Management Institute. While many objects of industrial design have become icons, until now, a systematic attempt has never been made to feature the speeches, articles, and comments that have fueled (and often critiqued) these creations. THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN READER is the first anthology to focus exclusively on the last 150 years of industrial design history, including the infrequently covered time period from World War II to the present. The selections not only include writings by designers, but also essays by the politicians, home economists, advertisers, social critics, manufacturers, and artists who influenced their work. Selections also include hard-to-find documents such as Henry Cole’s "On the International Results of the Exhibition of 1851," The Program of the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung, and Marcy Babbitt’s 1935 interview with designer Belle Kogan. Many of the essays in the book deal with timely issues such as environmentalism, gender, race, and global design, including: * Victor Papanek’s "Design for the Real World" * R. Buckminster Fuller’s "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth" * David H. Rice’s "What Color is Design?" * Kenichi Ohmae’s "Global Products"


From the Inside Flap
"Design is one of the most powerful fields of study of our time. This anthology not only makes it immediately accessible to a vast audience, but also displays it in all its glory and humanity. It gives design an even better name."—Paola Antonelli, Curator of Design, Museum of Modern Art "Professor Gorman has assembled a valuable anthology that brings to life the history of industrial design. It will be an essential text in design history courses and an important supplementary text for studio courses in industrial design. She has helped to give coherence to the unfolding story of industrial design in modern culture." —Richard Buchanan, Ph.D., Professor of Design, Carnegie Mellon University


About the Author
Carma R. Gorman earned her doctorate in art history at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where she teaches courses on the history of art and design. She is the acting president of Design Forum, an affiliated society of the College Art Association, and has published articles on early twentieth-century design in Design Issues and Winterthur Portfolio. She lives in Carbondale, Illinois.

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