This is a beautifully designed and printed book based on the exhibition 'American Modern' at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 172 illustrations (142 are large color photos mostly one to a page) focus on objects rather than the wider visual aspects of streamline design such as architecture, transport, engineering. I like the idea of everyday items being used, here you can study, for instance, Lurelle Guild's 1937 Electrolux vacuum cleaner, Norman Bel Geddes' 1940 Patriot radio, Russel Wright's 1937 American Modern dinnerware or the stunning candleholders Wilbert Orme designed in 1938, there are four shown in four separate arrangements and I would really like to have a set!

Author Stewart Johnson explains, in an essay at the start of the book, how a small group of American designers, several of them émigrés from Europe, abandoned the ornamentation of Art Deco in favor of simple clean lines, using new materials and manufacturing techniques. Furniture designer Paul Frankl was one of this group and he became an active promoter of the new style. He tied it all down to six characteristics
1Simplicity.
2Plain surfaces.
3Unbroken lines.
4Accentuation of structural necessity.
5Dramatisation of the intrinsic beauty of materials.
6Elimination of meaningless and distracting motives of the past.
Johnson adds one other point that Frankl would not have mentioned at the time: Streamlining. This was the idea that made the style American.

The back of the book has several pages of designer biographies, a useful glossary (Aluminum to Vitrolite and I now know what Monel Metal is) bibliography and index. Joe Coscia Jr, of the Metropolitan's photo studio, should be congratulated on his wonderful photography of the exhibits, they leap right off the page.

As this book only covers objects you might want to read about other areas of Streamline design, have a look at 'The Machine Age in America' by Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne Pilgrim and Dickran Tashjian. I think this can be considered the standard work on the subject. Another book that I like is Martin Greif's 'Depression Modern: Thirties Style in America', it has some excellent architectural (especially interior) photos that I have not seen in other books. Want to know more? Scan over my Listmania Streamline books selection.

I saw the exhibition at The Met and this book captures the objects perfectly! It also serves as a great reference to the greatest period in American industrial design: 1925 to 1940.

This is a great book for anyone interested in or appreciative of modern design and aesthetics. The book itself is beautiful, and all the color reproductions inside are sleek, clean, and inspiring. The author has the works divided by interesting categories such as "Streamlined," "Geometries," and "Penthouse," groupings that really help illuminate different design tendencies during this period. A beautiful publication!

I originally meant to buy Exam Cram not Exam Prep. When using Exam Prep I thought it did not prepare me for the tests. I have used one of the Exam Cram books for TCP/IP and thought it prepared me quite well. If your looking to take your MCSE test buy EXAM CRAM not Exam Prep.

I've been teaching the MCSE courses and on of my students brought the Exam Crams and Exam Prep books in the class, asked me to read and rate them. After reading through these books, I found these books are just excellent. They are full of technical stuffs, written in real English, and in a readable manner. I have even "talked" to one of the authors of the book as well (and his name is Ed). Ed was expert in the field and he was very fun to" talk" to. I definitely would recommend the books to all my students, friends.

When I scheduled the tests for MCSE. I didn't give enough time for this test, and I had no other choice but using exam cram books which I highly trust. They tend to cover most with a few mistakes. I finished this book within 2 days and passed the test. I read other reviews that this book is to read after TCP/IP and IIS4, but that's not really true. I only had basic knowledge of TCP/IP and IIS, and MS Proxy test doesn't require you to know corelated subject in depth. The book covered enough basics for me to pass the test. Save some time for yourself, too.

MCSE, A+, Network+, i-Net+

This is the best Exam Cram books I have ever read. It contains all the information you need to pass the test, and it contains very few errors. I read this book over the course of a week, combined with some hands on at work, and passed the Proxy test with a very high score.

The lack of talent and ability among the test takers should not reflect poorly on this book. This Exam Cram, like every other one I have used, worked fabulously. Some people have made the effort to vilify this book for their inability to pass the test. Ultimately I can only assume that these are the people who have lowered the MCSE certification to something less than entry level by flooding the market with MCSEs that require assistance in putting their pants on and assume they deserve six figure salaries.

I had no intention of reviewing this book, since I passed my Proxy test back in the summer of '98, but after reading these absurd reviews I felt compelled to defend the book. Some people have made the effort to defend the book by stating that IIS is something that should be taken/mastered first. What a crock. I've never taken an IIS test and I never will. I couldn't possibly care less about being a web master, or web server baby sitter. I'm a network engineer, and using a proxy server to manage traffic flows is part of what I do. If you don't understand TCP/IP, don't bother. If you are naïve enough to assume that the world begins and ends with Microsoft Windows NT, don't bother. Take another elective.

I took the Proxy test to complete my MCSE because I thought it would be an extremely easy test, and all I would need to pass is the Exam Cram and Exam Prep books, with about a week of study time, and boy was I right. I had used MS Proxy 1.0 at a previous job, but had never touched Proxy 2, and wouldn't any time soon. With no experience with the software (which is to say that I never saw MS Proxy 2.0, ever.) and no practice test software to fall back on I used nothing but the Exam Cram and Exam Prep books and walked in and blew away the test. This is one of the BEST Exam Cram books I've ever used, and to be frank it wasn't a big deal since the MS Proxy Server 2.0 test is far and away the easiest certification test I've ever taken, to include the Citrix CCA exams and the CompTIA Network+. If you used this book and didn't pass the test, odds are that the book wasn't the problem and you should consider a new career field in the housekeeping or fast food preparation industries.

Exam Cram rocked, as usual.

I am a MCSE who looked at this book for use when studying for my tests. Now, a networking class is using this as a manual and I have to say something. This book does not cover the material well enough to take the tests nor in depth enough to actually do Enterprise networking with NT.