This text traces the development of the British house, through its various guises, from 1780 to 1914. It offers insight into the building codes and customs of the times and provides an overview of the architectural detail of each period. In addition to the architectural history of the exterior, the book also examines the interior (living standards, design and decoration) and it explains where similar houses are located throughout the British Isles and Ireland. The first section of the book treats the terraced house chronologically by style, showing front and back elevations, ground plans of each floor and focuses on the detail of, for instance, sanitation and decorative mouldings. The second part looks at how life was lived in and around the house, with features on chimneys, cooking, lighting, colour, wallpapers, windows, doors and gardens. Throughout, the book is illustrated with images from the pattern books of builders, joiners and craftsmen, as well as plans and critiques from contemporary journals. Illustrated style guides are often useful to beginning students of architecture, architectural history, and interior design for understanding the language and grammatical elements of historical periods. Partly a style guide, partly a catalog, and partly a taxonomy, this volume addresses the history of the British house of the industrial era in an intriguingly thorough and inclusive way. It describes not only the basic exterior design elements but also interior elements, from doors and lighting to bathing facilities. The graphic material is an amalgam of clear floor plans with dimensions, sections, period illustrations and advertisements, and high-contrast photographs. Each two-page spread also contains a sidebar examining, in anecdotal fashion, the social, technological, and political developments that affected the domestic environment. Despite its limited usefulness to students of American architecture, who will find more germane material in Lester Walker's American Shelter (Overlook, 1981) or Virginia and Lee McAlester's A Field Guide to American Houses (LJ 8/84), this will prove effective nevertheless as a catalog of technological advances in the home. For larger architecture or interior design collections.?Paul Glassman, Pratt Inst. Libs., Brooklyn Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.