Whether you're interested in researching a house's history to start a historic neighborhood society or to aid your genealogical research, you'll find great details here for how to determine the age of a home.

The book explains how changes in technology and the American landscape affected home construction. Rooms used to have multiple functions until the Victorian era, when they became more specialized and each room acquired a specific function. Some functional rooms, such as the 'family room' and the garage would not appear until the end of WWII, as a result of the baby boom and increased mobility.

You will learn about common building methods and how homes in specific regions were affected by cultural and environmental influences.

There are also interesting anecdotes about unusual discoveries... such as the story about the woman who was puzzled about groove marks in the floor of a room, until she learned that the building had once been a dentist office, and the dentist used to roll the dental chair across the floor in that spot.

Each chapter contains a useful bibliography, and the section on finding written records is good too.

Myron and Shirlet Marty have given us a book that tells the story of the Taliesin Fellowship through the words of its members who have remained in what the Martys describe as "intentional community." Many of these apprentices knew and had worked with Wright before his death in 1959, most of the rest were members during the 26 years that Mrs. Wright directed the Fellowship until her death. Students of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture since that time give a hint of the future for Taliesin. The Martys interviewed these apprentices and arranged excerpts in what becomes an excellent description of life at Taliesin and the Fellowship experience from their point of view. What is needed now is a second volume, which Professor Marty has said he will consider. This would include interviews with apprentices who chose to leave Taliesin after various periods of time and for various reasons, including the feeling that Mrs. Wrights agenda varied considerably from that of Mr. Wright.

FLW's Taliesin Fellowship is a fascinating study of how an organization evolves as the people in it prosper, then age and die. The community is particularly significant because of Wright's architectural legacy, but there is so much more than the architecture involved. The stories that Fellowship members tell about the Wrights and their lives in the Taliesin community are truly compelling. If you're interested in communal societies, business development, and the creative process leading to many of Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest works, this book is essential.

Dr. Marty must have put in a lot of time and effort into this book. He discribes each century and the ideologies that the people believed in. He describes all the problems and benifits of each time period. He accomplished this through quotes; well broken up chapters and thorough anaylsis. At some points, the book becomes to thick with facts and very slow. It never lacked inspiration or serious effort. Dr. Marty's book is a well writen work that a lot of time and effort went into. If you are serious about history I would recomend that you read it.

I found that "Nearby History" (2nd edition) was actually quite an informative book. I was looking for something in particular about my family, and I was at a complete loss as to how to find it. I haven't found it yet, but thanks to this book, I have made progress. I thought it'd be just for historians.