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Fashion in the Time of the Great Gatsby

LaLonnie Lehman

The Roaring Twenties were exciting years for fashion – in the wake of the First World War, staid traditions and conservative mores were swept away in a rush of new, glamorous and risqué styles that were often shocking to older generations. It was the era of short skirts and snappy, wide-lapelled suits, of new hair-styles and two-tone spats, and style became a highly personal statement. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless masterpiece, captured all this with unforgettable panache, the rare book that inescapably defines the era from which it sprang. With a new film of the book released in 2013, starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Carey Mulligan, this book is the perfect illustrated guide to the lavish clothes of this most alluring and adventurous of fashion decades.

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American Barns

Jan Corey Arnett

The heart of every working farm, the barn is an icon of rural America. This book chronicles – and celebrates – all the main types of barn, and looks at how and why these treasures of early American architecture developed as they did. It explains how the wealth of immigrant construction methods and range of environments and climates resulted in a fascinating variety of barn styles in the United States, from the earliest rare Dutch examples to simpler English types to others in more surprising shapes (round or even polygonal) crafted by the Shakers in the 1800s. Arranged by state, it highlights the most notable, famous and historic barns that the reader can visit, and highlights the efforts of conservation groups to preserve America’s barns and find innovative ways to repurpose these glorious old structures as homes and studios – and as living monuments of rural heritage.

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Presidents’ Gardens

Linda Hoyt

The White House is the most famous house in the world – yet its 18 acres of perfectly manicured grounds and magnificent gardens, much beloved by the Presidents and their families, are rarely seen by the public. This book is a horticultural celebration of all the Presidents’ gardens, beginning with George Washington's beloved Mount Vernon and looking at the development of White House gardens over two centuries. Rare photographs perfectly illustrate highlights from the best of the presidential gardens, including Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden, the Roosevelt wartime White House greenhouses and Michelle Obama's sustainability-inspired vegetable garden, which now produces food that is served to the First Family. The text is peppered with lively comments and useful tips from gardeners who contributed to White House beautification projects, serving many different Administrations.

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Airstream: The Silver RV

Tara Cox

The Airstream is an eye-catching vintage classic. First appearing on American highways in the mid-1930s, these sleek aluminum icons were compact, cozy spaces that could hitched to the family car and taken out on the open road – and nearly a century later their timeless design has lost none of its appeal, enjoying renewed popularity among celebrities, event planners and young travelers who appreciate its distinctively American blend of functionalism and beauty and air of nostalgia. Born in the California backyard of inventor Wally Byam and partly inspired by the work of Hawley Bowlus, the famed chief builder of The Spirit of St. Louis, the Airstream’s modernist aesthetic has remained relatively unchanged in eight decades, and its industrial durability has earned a reputation without peer, with more than 65% of all Airstreams still on the road today. The book features the complete history of the Airstream, tips, cool facts, quotes and fabulous photographs—a fitting tribute to a true American legend.

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The Chicago School of Architecture: Building the Modern City, 1880–1910

Rolf Achilles

The birth of the skyscraper in Chicago in the mid-1880s introduced a new direction for city architecture: upwards. But how—and why— was it that Chicago set the standard for high-rise buildings, not only across the USA but all over the world? Rolf Achilles here introduces the style of the First Chicago School from 1880 to 1910, explaining the innovative use of iron frames for strength, height and openness, and the ubiquity of gridded window arrangements. With reference to such famous architects as William Le Baron Jenny and Frank Lloyd Wright, and colorful pictures of, among many others, the Reliance, Brooks and Marquette buildings, this book is a fascinating exploration of the structures that helped to give Chicago its identity, and the world a new way of building.

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The 1950s American Home

Diane Boucher

This book reveals what life was like in the 1950s American home. In that age of post-war prosperity and optimism, and of suburbanisation and the 'baby boom', the American dream seemed more achievable than ever before amid seismic changes in the home and work-place, new convenience technology, and new ways of living in general. From Ranch House to American Modernism to affordable homes in the suburbs, 1950s American Home is the perfect introduction to how we, our parents and even our grandparents lived their lives in the middle of the last century.

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Colonial Food

Ann Chandonnet

This book reveals what food was like for the first settlers and colonists of America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among the many challenges of surviving in the New World, those of cooking with the new foods the colonists encountered there – such as maize, potatoes, beans, peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, and chillies – were paramount, and so the subject is absolutely central to any understanding of early US history. From the very first Thanksgiving Dinner to the more sophisticated fare of later inns and taverns, we visit the sites of the early colonial settlements and see how they lived and, eventually, thrived. There are also recipes showing you how to recreate your own colonial food.

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Classic Candy: America’s Favorite Sweets, 1950–80

Darlene Lacey

Whether classics like Hershey’s, Mars and M&Ms or trend-setters like PEZ and Atomic Fireballs, candy has a special place in the hearts and memories of most Americans, who to this day consume more than 600 billion pounds of it each year. In this colorful illustrated guide, Darlene Lacey looks at candy in America from a variety of angles, examining everything from chocolate to fruity sweets and from the simply packaged basics to gaudy product tie-ins. She examines the classic brands of the late twentieth century and what they mean, guiding us on a mouth-watering, sugar-fueled trip down a memory lane filled with signposts like Bazooka, Clark, Necco and Tootsie Roll.

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Amusement Parks

Jim Hillman

From Jones’s Woods, America’s first amusement resort, to Coney Island during the golden age of the mid-1900s, and well beyond into the twenty-first century, the thrills of the amusement park have been a treasured part of childhood for Americans from coast to coast. Though many of the country’s grand amusement treasures have now vanished, and many other parks are struggling for survival, their memory and legacy are very much alive: there will be a fascination with these American classics as long as the clatter of the old coaster cars and the thumping of the carousel band organ remains. Through thoroughly researched text and historic images, Amusement Parks author and park enthusiast Jim Hillman captures the sights, smells, and continuing vitality of a grand American tradition.

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Steamboats

Sara Wright

Paddlewheel riverboat, showboat, sternwheeler: in all its myriad forms, the steamboat revolutionized American travel in the 1800s, taking millions of people inland and helping to settle and develop the vast territories beyond the original colonies. It was an era in which young boys dreamed of becoming steamboat pilots and Mark Twain immortalized the “floating palaces” that traveled up and down the Mississippi River. In this fascinating history, Sara Wright explains the factors that made the era perfect for the development of the steam engine and paddle boat, taking the reader far beyond the romantic image and revealing the steamboat as a vital and essential force in the development of the nation.

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Bridal Fashion 1900–1950

Kathleen York

From homespun to haute couture, the dresses worn by American brides in the first half of the twentieth century had myriad influences. In Bridal Fashion 1900–1950, living-history expert Kathleen York takes readers on an elegant journey back in time, marking the changes that economics, popular culture, and even politics have made to style over the years. Both brides-to-be looking for inspiration and nostalgia-seekers will enjoy this lavishly illustrated tour of an era that saw the average wedding evolve from a simple affair for a few family members into a dazzling, and often expensive, gala for hundreds of guests.

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