Kenneth Clark Critical Essay | Critical Review by W. H. Godfrey

Critical Review by W. H. Godfrey

SOURCE: Godfrey, W. H. Review of The Gothic Revival: An Essay in the History of Taste, by Kenneth Clark. History: The Quarterly Journal of The Historical Association 15, no. 57 (April 1930): 72-3.

In the following review, Godfrey provides a comparison of three architectural history books, and The Gothic Revival: An Essay in the History of Taste by Clark does not receive a favorable review.

Histories of architecture are of two types. The one is written for the student who desires to learn how to distinguish styles and periods and to familiarise himself with the character of famous buildings. The other, which is history proper, is concerned with the light which architecture throws on the life of its period, and with the national and social causes of its development or decay. In the latter the author's point of view will mean much in the matter of interpretation, but the former...
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