Suggested Reading

Since the success of any blog depends on good word of mouth, I feel I should show gratitude to the blogs that have helped draw in regular readers to Architecture and Morality. Among the posts that are well worth reading are:

• 2 Blowhards features a stimulating interview between Max Goss of Right Reason with Roger Scruton on the Meaning of Conservatism. The interview probes deeply into conservatism’s philosophic principles which often are at odds with the policies of so-called “conservative parties”.
  
• Ed Driscoll reviewed two concurrent exhibits in New York on the master architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe that took place four years ago. The Museum of Modern Art presented the Mies’ work during his formative years in Germany. His work after moving to America after Word War II was on display at the Whitney. How I wished to have seen this all at the time! Ed provides an excellent summary on the creative inspiration and his importance to the practice of architecture of the twentieth century. He also meditates on Le Corbusier and his influence on the ugly suburban housing projects of Western Europe.

• Philip Klein commemorates what he believes is the best Cold War film of all time. I won’t divulge the name of this movie only to recall how fun and exciting it was when it first came out and how twenty years later I watch and kind of cringe at how silly it looks today. Yet the movie reveals much of what was going on in people’s minds at the time, and we should be reminded that what appears most important now will likely seem ridiculous when reexamined in the future. What I admire about movies in the eighties is that they weren’t afraid to depict a realistic enemy, something the politically correct Hollywood of today is too cowardly to do.
  
• How close were the Nazis to realizing the nuclear bomb? Erik Svane at No Pasaran discusses a recurring pattern about how what we know of our enemies often underestimates their actual ability to inflict terrible harm. Often the cost of not intervening immediately is an even deadlier but necessary intervention later on. Hesitancy can breed defeat.
  
• One of the best ways to learn about what makes certain buildings so moving to passerby is by sketching them. Gonewild at Architecture Sketches posts some of his sketches along with those of other famous architects. They track how designers think and how some initial concepts persist remarkably towards the completed building.
  
• For a nice gateway to blogs that focus on Chicago and Illinois politics as well as on Unitarianism, you should check out Bill Baar’s West Side. Johnathan Gewirtz at Chicagoboyz also features an example of the odd nature of Chicago politics.
  
  Enjoy!