Nowhere else in the world can compare with the incredible array of domestic architecture in America. It sometimes seems that there are as many styles of houses as there are actual number of houses. While the earliest American houses were largely derived from English or Dutch prototypes, the diversity for which America is so celebrated soon emerged, reflecting mostly how Americans used their homes, as well as local and regional tastes and vernacular and folk origins from around the world. The variety and dynamism in the style of homes in that emerging pluralistic society marches on today in homes designed by adventuresome architects and clients.

In this extraordinary celebration of the American house, renowned author David Larkin, with commentary by some of today's leading architectural historians and critics, examines the paths that have led to distinctively American homes. Special attention is given to examining details of the makeup of each house as well as the functions of "the home" and how these functions have changed just as technology, social relations, and living arrangements have changed in the United States over the past 400 years.

Filled with more than 400 beautiful color photographs, this book also contains six double gatefolds, which offer dramatic presentations of the elements and details that make up the variety of architectural styles in American residential architecture. No other illustrated history of the American house can come close to this full portrayal of the historical and stylistic ranges of the place we call "home."