{"product_id":"a-field-guide-to-american-houses-the-definitive-guide-to-identifying-americas-domestic-architecture","title":"A Field Guide to American Houses — The Definitive Guide to Identifying America's Domestic Architecture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e880 pages. 50+ architectural styles. 400 years of American houses, decoded — the reference that has been in print since 1984.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e🏠 \u003cstrong\u003eFinally know what you're living in.\u003c\/strong\u003e Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Queen Anne, mid-century ranch — identify your own house and understand which renovation choices fit its architectural language and which fight it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e🔍 \u003cstrong\u003eSpot any style from one visible detail.\u003c\/strong\u003e The pictorial key works backwards from what you can actually see — a tile roof, an eyebrow dormer, a bracketed cornice — and sends you straight to the styles that have it. You don't need to know the answer to look it up.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e🚶 \u003cstrong\u003eEvery walk becomes an architectural tour.\u003c\/strong\u003e Seven periods, from Colonial settlements to 2000s Millennium Mansions. After a week with this book you can't un-see it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e🎁 \u003cstrong\u003eThe gift that lands every time.\u003c\/strong\u003e Published by Knopf. Called \u003cem\u003emagisterial\u003c\/em\u003e by The New York Times. It looks like an heirloom on a shelf, and it earns the space.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eSpot a Detail. Find the Style. In Seconds.\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pictorial key at the front of the book is a visual index that works in reverse. You don't look up a style name you already know — you look up the thing you can see. A dormer shape. A porch column. A roofline. It routes you to every style that shares it, and the labelled schematic drawings do the rest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e50+ Styles. Each One Gets a Full Chapter.\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFolk, Colonial, Romantic, Victorian, Eclectic, Modern, Contemporary. Every style opens with a large labelled drawing, then adds photographs of regional variants and close-ups of the details that actually separate one style from its neighbours — windows, cornices, doors, porches — plus where it was built, when, and why.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Chapter Nobody Else Has Written\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe revised edition added something no other guide covers: how American neighborhoods themselves came to look the way they do. Streetcar suburbs, the mortgage rules that shaped setbacks, the shift from front porch to back patio. It reframes the whole book — you stop reading houses one at a time and start reading blocks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eIn Print Since 1984 for a Reason\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eForty years, two editions, and still the book architects and preservationists reach for first. The second edition adds 600 new photographs and line drawings, entirely new style categories, and an appendix on 20th- and 21st-century construction methods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat the press said\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003eMagisterial.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e— The New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the most informative guides published in years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e— Chicago Sun-Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Virginia Savage McAlester\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Knopf\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEdition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Expanded, revised second edition\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Trade paperback, 880 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.8 × 1.6 × 9.1 in\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780375710827\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Little Sparkle Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46266530660409,"sku":null,"price":69.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0799\/4418\/7961\/files\/ChatGPT_Image_Jul_27_2026_01_31_36_AM_1060x_d02b87f1-4e8d-4f9a-be2b-dcb3f759a6a7.webp?v=1785480679","url":"https:\/\/littlesparklelibrary.com\/products\/a-field-guide-to-american-houses-the-definitive-guide-to-identifying-americas-domestic-architecture","provider":"Little Sparkle Library","version":"1.0","type":"link"}