Outrage

by Ian Nairn

1955. No edition remarks. Unpaginated. No dust jacket. This is an ex-Library book. Blue cloth with gilt lettering. Paginated 365-456. Book has been rebound by library, with expected inserts, stamps and inscriptions. Pages are mildly tanned. Mild cracking to gutters, however binding remains firm. Mild thumb-marking present. Tape to some gutters. Mild scuffing to front endpaper. Boards have light edgewear with corner crushing and mild marking to boards. Mild crushing and tearing to spine ends. Mild water droplets to rear board. Book has forward lean. Boards are mildly warped.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Cities

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Ian Douglas Nairn was a British architectural critic and topographer.

Reviews

[Paul Norris]

Good book, still relevant today though expressed in dated terms (e.g. 'can your wife pop down to the shops or is it a fag without a car?'). Despite a few moments like these Nairn's style is brilliant, though I found it hard to share his annoyance at electricity pylons and fussy municipal gardens. Subtopia has won, and the measure of this is how few of the photographs he printed seemed really outrageous to me. To be outraged at all subtopian design now would put you in a permanent state of stress. It would be a danger to my health; it didn't do Ian Nairn's wellbeing much good even many decades ago, and that was before most mega-supermarkets and shopping centres and multiplexes.

[William Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important, pre-Jane Jacobs polemic against mindless design. Important, prickly, with nuggets that still apply today, if anyone’s listening. Somewhat dated on the other hand, focused on a specific time and country that one has to extrapolate for. The inverted road trip section isn’t the most compelling read, but the rest is a clarion call. The photographs certainly conjure a gray, wire and access road cluttered landscape—yikes.