Design History has become a complex and wide-ranging discipline. It now examines artefacts from conception to development, production, mediation, and consumption. Over the last few decades, the discipline has developed a diverse range of theories and methodologies for the analysis of objects. Design History presents the most comprehensive overview and guide to these developments. The book first traces the development of the discipline, explaining how it draws from Art History, Industrial Design, Cultural History and Material Culture Studies. The core of the book then analyses the seminal methodologies used in Design History today. The final section highlights the key issues concerning knowledge and meaning in Design. Throughout, the aim is to present a concise and accessible introduction to this complex field. A map to the intellectual landscape of Design History, the book will be an invaluable guide for students and a very useful reference for scholars. “This essential guide to the field of design history offers a nuanced survey of ongoing debates, suggests the use of new interdisciplinary performance theories, and clarifies epistemological issues surrounding design and modernization.” ― Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin “Fallan's methodological survey is opinionated, sharp and persuasive... This is an extremely useful and engaging account.” ― Grace Lees-Maffei, University of Hertfordshire “Addressing the various changes which have occurred in the writing of design history since its emergence as a discrete discipline, Design History is an accessible yet authoritative analysis of a variety of methodological frameworks, assessing their suitability and relative merits for the design historian....A massively useful resource.” ― Paul Atkinson, Sheffield Hallam University “This book will be of great value to scholars in the field of Design as an overview and critique of a highly interdisciplinary field. It will be of even more value to students for its explanation of the historiography and methodology of Design Studies and for the way it strengthens our understanding of Design History.” ― Anders V. “The standard historiographic reading for students of design history.” ― Design Issues “Thoughtful and provocative ... a timely contribution to the field.” ― Design and Culture “Kjetil Fallan's slim blue paperback is a refreshingly readable guidebook to contemporary issues in design history, theory, and methods. Clearly organized and succinct, it nevertheless covers a considerable amount of ground, from historiography, to a selection of methods, to epistemology.” ―Hsiao-Yun Chu, San Francisco University, Winterthur Portfolio, Winter 2012 “In totality [ Design History is] more than just a teaching or study resource. As [it] advocate[s] that the production, consumption and mediation of designed objects and images affect everyone, [it] will be of interest to both informed and general readerships. Design History 's introduction tentatively offers that design history might be seen as a field of cultural history - although, as the volume unfolds, robustly demonstrates that it is... indeed this is a great strength [of Design History ]: the effective demonstration that design analysis and history is not an elitist, purely academic pursuit, but essential to consideration of society and its cultural expressions in the very broadest sense.” ―Linda King, The Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland, Artefact - Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians “In a tight, efficient argument, not without occasional dashes of humour, Fallan carefully reviews the development of design history since the mid-twentieth century, usefully citing a wealth of seminal articles and studies. But the book goes further, opening up methodological assumptions and poking fun at their inner organs: here design history becomes both the subject of description and the object of analysis. Design History is an extremely useful book. It is a sharp analysis of the development of design history, and a clear guide through the field's current iterations. Fallan disassembles both analytical methods and conceptions of histories and lays their parts bare . . . His purpose is not to complete a discussion but to begin one; to open up design history to rethinking, so that it can better intersect with social science, cultural studies, and other allied fields.” ―Ethan Robey, Journal of Design History Volume 25 Issue 3 Kjetil Fallan is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of Design History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), the editor of Scandinavian Design (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012) and co-editor of Made in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). He is also co-editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural Histories of Design series and an editor of the Journal of Design History.