Description:
Purdy traces the use of architectural reasoning as a method for critically examining consciousness from Kant and Hegel to Benjamin and Libeskind.
Review Quotes:
Given its theoretical breadth and complexity of analysis, Purdy's investigation provides an essential complement to existing cultural criticism on architecture's position within a subjective, emotionally determined aesthetics from idealism to Benjamin and beyond.... A timely contribution to the field of German studies, it holds far-reaching implications for those interested in the evolution of German aesthetic theory as well as those working in the fields of memory studies, urban and rural studies, and museum and monument studies. The volume will also serve as a valuable tool for scholars of architecture, art historians, comparatists, and all who endeavor to rethink the connections between architecture and the history of ideas.
-- "Monatshefte"