Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn - by Thomas C Hubka (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A classic work on farm buildings made by nineteenth-century New Englanders refreshed with a new introduction.

Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn portrays the four essential components of the stately and beautiful connected farm buildings made by nineteenth-century New Englanders that stand today as a living expression of a rural culture, offering insights into the people who made them and their agricultural way of life. A visual delight as well as an engaging tribute to our nineteenth-century forebears, this book, first published nearly forty years ago, has become one of the standard works on regional farmsteads in America. This new edition features a new preface by the author.

Review Quotes

Praise for the previous edition:
"An unexpected small masterpiece that has some of the suspense of a detective story and, at times, the poignance of deeply felt, sympathetic social history."-- "Boston Globe"

Praise for the Previous Edition:
"An important pioneering effort. The book commemorates both an unique indigenous architectural expression and a way of life that has become extinct . . . The style is economic and clear and Hubka's affection for architecture binds the buildings to their people and their times."-- "Maine Sunday Times"

Praise for the Previous Edition:
"No matter where you live, you will want this book as a model of vernacular architecture scholarship."-- "Vernacular Architecture Newsletter"

About the Author

Thomas C. Hubka is professor emeritus in the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2006 he received the Vernacular Architecture Forum's Henry Glassie Award in recognition of his lifetime of achievement. His most recent book is How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940.