Thomas Sharp was a key figure in mid-C20 British planning whose renown stems from two periods in his career. First; he came to attention as a polemical writer in the 1930s on planning issues; including as a virulent opponent of garden cities. His prose tempered over time and this phase perhaps culminated in Town Planning; first published in 1940 and reputed to have sold over 250;000 copies. Subsequently the plans he produced for historic towns in the1940s; such as Oxford; were very well known and were influential in developing ideas of townscape. Started as an official manual on village planning; The Anatomy of the Village followed on from the Scott Report; for which Sharp had been one of the Secretaries. When the Ministry decided not to proceed with the publication; Sharp himself published in it 1946. It became one of Sharps best known works; with lucid prose and generous illustration by photograph and beautiful line-drawings of village plans. The aim of The Anatomy of the Village was to set out the main principles of village planning; especially in relation to physical design.Anatomy became a key text in thinking about villages in the post-war period; a period when there was great concern that settlements should develop in more sensitive ways than inter-war ribbon and suburban development patterns. The problems of poor quality development; unrelated to settlement form; was to continue to stimulate books such as Lionel Brettrsquo;s Landscape in Distress and campaigns from the Architectural Review. Reading the text today it still has much to offer: while some of its assumptions about the level of services a village might support clearly belong to another era; its beautiful and simple typological analyses of village form continue to be of relevance.
2013-06-25 2013-06-25File Name: B00E3Y56TE
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Painfully goodBy AudiophileAnyone who enjoys John Faheys music enough to have more than one of his albums will enjoy this book. It is capably written; beautifully printed and well documented; and the author knows enough about music to write credibly about Faheys works. More photographs wouldve been enjoyable; but the ones used are apt and help tell the story.I have to say for me; though; the experience of reading it was somewhat painful. Like any Fahey fan I knew the sad way his life ended; and experiencing this uniquely American artists decline was challenging.11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Get This BookBy TakomaAll Fahey fans should get this book and read it. It is really the only serious Fahey biography or documentary currently available on any media. I would venture that this is the only real biography or documentary on Fahey; period. Either way it is unlikely to be exceeded.What about the "Blind Joe Death Saga of John Fahey DVD"? Well; get that too. The creative people did a great job setting beautiful imagery to Faheys music. You can pretty much skip the interviews on that DVD as they are 50% content free for all but diehard Pete Townshend fans.What makes this book so great?It focuses on Fahey himself. Lowenthal obviously made a huge effort to interview ALL of the key people throughout Faheys life; not just the readily accessible handful who came to know him over his last decade. Fortunately; they are included as well.Next; it stays away from the music itself. Yes; Lowenthal dutifully cites the well worn "Ives/Bartok/classical music over traditional fingerpicking" quote which has never really applied to more than a handful of Faheys compositions. Fahey was a creative genius composer who listened widely to all types of music. The closest that were ever going to come to understanding his creativity is found in the rambling text in "The Best of John Fahey 1959-1977 tablature book. This book actually does reference some of that as well; so it really is as good as it gets on his music and Lowenthal wisely knows when to stop.Finally; it focuses on the people and experiences in Faheys life and through them we come to understand Fahey about as well as we can. If youve spent time reading his liner notes; his books; etc then you will enjoy getting a better understanding of the faces; emotions and histories behind the liner notes. For the first time; diehard fans understand the meaning of "Koonaklaster" (although a few of them seem to still be referring to Fahey himself as the "Koonaklaster" here while reviewing (and I assume; first reading?) this wonderful book.... oh well; you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink.I was interested to learn that alone among peers; only Village Voice critic Nat Hentoff liked "Of Rivers and Religion"; writing "I was not prepared for what I heard in this album. Ive been absorbed in all kinds of music for a long time; and only rarely have the first few notes of a musician Im listening to for the first time announced a wholly singular presence-- an event". I agree with him that "Rivers and Religion" was a masterpiece; and I would include "Old Fashioned Love" and "After the Ball" as well. That makes two critics; as I worked as a published music critic and later an editor seemingly a lifetime ago. While the general consensus will always be that these releases were campy and plastic copies of the originals; they opened a window to 20s Jazz for me. In my humble opinion; these reworked versions exceed the originals in every respect and there are also many hauntingly beautiful Fahey compositions such as "Dixie Pig Bar-B-Q Blues" so perhaps these critics ought to give those 3 records another spin or two.Faheys last good record was "Let Go"; a collaboration with Terry Robb which was soon followed by their weaker 1985 "Rain Forests" release. After this we hit the 1990s and here we run into the only truly weak and inaccurate point in the book. Not some trivial misstep such as the botched assertion that David Grisman was the Deads lyricist... No; here Lowenthal goes completely off the tracks in a bizarre attempt to portray the 90s as some sort of paradigm shift where tortured soul artists somehow emerge to snatch control of the recording industry from the NYC suits! Here he is talking about the Seattle scene; an era which epitomized complete and total lock down by the "star maker machinery behind the popular song" which Joni Mitchell had so famously criticized. Ironically; Mitchell herself who is the very definition of a non-mainstream tortured soul first found herself unable to get recording contracts at all in this very era. Some "rebellion" against the "powers that be"!!!Its fortunate that Lowenthal generally stays away from the music in the book; because the truth was that 90s Seattle was about as derivative as rock gets with 3 or 4 bands which idolized Neil Young and blew all of our minds solely because they were the first American generation to like; prefer and slavishly imitate their parents music. Far from talent or creativity; it sounded "real" only because it aped the real music that the kids had heard throughout their childhoods in the back seats of their parents cars. They bought it and the industry rushed in to endlessly reissue that music and to sign every imitative band in sight to enormous contracts; regardless of talent. The whole scene peaked with "Miror Ball"; a Neil Young/Pearl Jam collaboration which marked somewhat of a low point for Young and a career peak for Pearl Jam. Crazy Horse were the big winners as their reputation increased astronomically once we had all heard the "new hard rocking alternative". Today these "kids" have music collections which contain 90% 60s/70s and little of Seattle... check out your own kids collections. How could Lowenthal get this so very wrong?To his credit; Lowenthal does not go so far as to praise Faheys work in this period. In fact; he reveals that "Juana"; Faheys only really good composition in that era; was actually played and recorded by Jim ORourke as Fahey struggled to play it.All in all this is required reading for a Fahey fan and this is very likely to stand as the definitive Fahey biography.19 of 21 people found the following review helpful. Poor Boy; Long Ways From HomeBy Tat - AceI went with 5 stars because it is a well written book and I didnt feel disappointed that I spent twenty bucks for the privilege of reading it. I sat down with it in the morning and; aside from a few breaks went through it from cover to cover by bedtime at 11PM. Say that to say that the text flowed and held my interest. Of course only a Fahey devotee would be interested in reading a 188 page biography of this man. A great and innovative guitarist but flawed human being; like as we all are.I was introduced to his Takoma releases beginning with Blind Joe Death in the early 1970s. I would be classified as one of those aging hippies he disliked because they wanted him to continue to play the same stuff he had composed in the 1950s. I remember being put off by his liner notes with the put ons that he wrote.I recall his editorials in Guitar Player magazine way back then; with phrases including; "the ontological fixity;" drew a lot of ridicule from readers who commented in letters to the editor. They thought him pretentious if I remember correctly. Of course Fahey would have classified such critics as the "midgets" he said he was surrounded by; and maybe that is right.So it is a sad story of a man whom I suppose you could accurately say was a tortured genius; whose personal demons derailed his life. I am curious as to why the author didnt include more on Faheys relationship with Stefan Grossman. He recorded a live concert for Grossman; and a guitar lesson series; with an interview. Bottom line is for those who are curious as to the life of John Fahey I recommend the book.