Lighthouse: An Illuminating History of the World's Coastal Sentinels

by R.G. Grant

Lighthouse is packed with extraordinary stories of human innovation, desperate shipwrecks, builders defying the elements and heroic sea rescues. Through more than 350 gorgeous vintage images and historic details, Lighthouse brings the golden age of seafaring alive.
With rare archival blueprints and stories of daring adventure, Lighthouse captures the romance and awe-inspiring history of these isolated, life-saving towers, along with the incredible feats of engineering and invention it took to create them. Beginning in the 18th century and ending in the mid-19th century, this book examines these iconic buildings from every angle, chronicling the evolution of lighthouse design; the tremendous obstacles overcome during construction and upkeep; the thrilling tales of heroism and mercilessness of the seas; and the daily lives of the dedicated and often long-suffering keepers. With over 350 illustrations, this seasonless gift book provides the tales and original architectural plans for beloved lighthouses found throughout the world, including Eddystone, Sandy Hook, Montauk Point, Stannard Rock, Borkum Grosser, Green Point, Tillamook Rock, Cape Hatteras, Erie Harbor, and many more.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Architecture, Technology, Engineering, Art

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

R.G. Grant is a historian who has written extensively on many aspects and periods of history. Among his more than fifty published books are: Battle, Soldier, and Battle at Sea (2005, 2007, 2008). He was also a major contributor to the ITV Visual History of the Twentieth Century (1999) and consultant for Chronology of World History (1995). He is also a contributor to 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History, where earlier versions of his contributions to Britannica first appeared.

Reviews

[Abby Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This coffee table book is a decent thing to bring out at a party and includes a number of interesting details about lighthouses around the world. The organization was a bit of a struggle for me, focusing on things like particular lighthouse features rather than a straightforward and chronological history of lighthouses (though there is some of this chronology in between chapters, where diagrams of lighthouses explore the differences throughout history). The information isn't especially memorable in most instances, though one section about how deaths of lighthouse keepers was handled has stuck with me.

Grant's writing is accessible, structural issues aside. It's easy enough to breeze through a chapter and come back for more later and just as easy to read it in one or two sittings. I took notes while reading it and still didn't find that it took especially long to get through. Text spacing is generous and plenty of pictures, diagrams, and those chronological interludes between chapters help to make this a relatively short and quick read.

Despite the title, the content was not especially thorough as far as I could tell. While very early lighthouses have little documentation from which Grant could have pulled from, his concentration on some designers and builders in the later years of lighthouse building seemed to necessarily leave out others. The book also seemed to have a pretty Western lean to it, though in my ignorance of the history and so on of lighthouses, I can't say for certain that it's not an accurate picture.

If you don't mind some cherry picking and like architectural sketches, this might be a good choice for you. If you're looking for a more thorough take on lighthouse history, I suspect there are better options out there.

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and beautifully illustrated history of the lighthouse and of coastal navigation, starting with the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria -- a wonder of the ancient world -- and proceeding through modern times. We see, illustrated in understandable ways, how the architecture evolved, along with the precarious nature of siting these structures on stormy headlands and shoals. We see the evolution of lighting and lenses, and the hazards and hardships of life among the lighthouse keepers. We also see, in the present day, the preservation efforts for lighthouses made redundant or idled by modern technology. Highly recommend.

[MattA · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just failed to satisfy. The stars of the book are the architectural drawings and illustrations, which take up about three-quarters of the pages. These are fascinating to look at and by themselves would make this a good coffee-table book. The text that goes along with the images was less inspiring. There are only four chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue. The first chapter on the history of the lighthouse was OK, providing a decent overview. The middle chapters on construction of lighthouses and lens design were less interesting. They felt like a disconnected list of technical challenges and accomplishments. The chapter on lighthouse keepers was more engaging, as the challenges of such an isolated lifestyle could be seen as more universal. The design of the book itself was the biggest letdown. With a sepia color scheme, there were many pages that featured black lettering on a dark charcoal grey background, rendering the text nearly unreadable. Also, there were very few photographs of lighthouses, the exception being a few pages at the beginning and end of the book. Alongside the architectural drawings I would have appreciated seeing current photos of lighthouses still standing, or at least site photos of those no longer standing. In the end, I wish I had just spent time looking at the drawings and ignoring the text altogether.

[Josh Liller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an illustrated history of lighthouses. In addition to American lighthouses, there is also some coverage and architectural drawings of European lighthouses.

The text is short, which is fine since the meat of the book is its many, many illustrations. The full-page architectural drawings, often partly colored, are themselves were great. However, many of their accompanying captions are nearly illegible because they're printed as black text on dark gray pages.

Also problematic is that many of the illustrations are not full page. Some are only half page or quarter page. Each page of text includes 2-5 illustrations along the inner margins which means they are only about 2" x 2" or 2" x 3".

Near the beginning of the book is a two-page spread of lighthouse stereoviews, but there are 33 of them only two pages. Thus each stereoview is about 1.5" x 2.75" (and since stereoviews have a pair of photos plus a border the actually lighthouse image is half that).

This could be a wonderful coffee table book of lighthouses, especially lighthouse architecture, but the book's design was badly botched.

Not recommended.

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating on this one is a bit low because for such a visual book a lot of the font choices were horrible. Black text on dark grey pages made some of the captions nearly impossible to read.

The pictures themselves were beautiful and interesting — just wish I could’ve read the information alongside it more easily.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5*s

This book was really interesting as far as lighthouse history goes. Learning about the difficulties of constructing them more in depth than other books usually get into, with the added drawings was super cool. This is a book I definitely want on my shelf for not only future research but to just have a really cool coffee table book too.

[Patreesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and informative. You will never look at lighthouses the same after this book. A bit dry in sections.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень хорошая книга: тексты сжатые и по делу, отличная вёрстка и иллюстрации отличные.

[Daniel Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully thought out book with wonderful details.

[MARTIN JOHN CORFE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book with super illustrations. Some of the text explaining the pictures is on a dark background and not easy to read.

[Alister Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated and inspiring book about lighthouse’s

[Natalie :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

God I love lighthouses 😩

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore the style of these books, they're so beautifully designed, published and well put together so naturally they'd make lovely gifts! This read focused on the history of lighthouses which I knew very little about and I was surprised to find out that Robert Louis Stevenson's family was closely related to the history of lighthouses. Additionally, I didn't know that some poorer coastal communities in England didn't welcome the construction of lighthouses as it lessened the chance of shipwrecks from which they profited (this point is related to a book I finished in July). It's an unusual and quirky non-fiction book but it's a quick, easy and informative read that I cannot recommend enough! Thanks again Thames and Hudson, your books are so beautiful! *gifted for review

[Evan Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

The real star of this book is not the author, but the designer. The text is interesting, but the layout and graphics are exceptional.

[Lee Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous coffee table book.

[Katra]

Three and a half stars. Fascinating history of these impressive beacons. I really loved all the old diagrams and building plans.