For about three decades at the turn of the century, Arts and Crafts architecture and the theories behind it caught the attention of the Western world as the Gothic revival was set upon a new and vigourous course by the ideas of Pugin, Ruskin and Morris. This major survey gives a critical account of the lives, theories and work of the architects of the Arts and Crafts movement which began in England and quickly influenced Europe and North America. It highlights the contradictions they tried to resolve in accommodating or rejecting the developments of the new machine age, and in meeting the cost of materials and craftsmanship which forced them to work mainly for a wealthy elite class. It shows how the ideas of the movement influenced the California and Prairie Schools and Art Nouveau, and how it led ultimately to the development of neo-Georgianism and the growth of the machine-worshiping modern Movement after the First World War.

The Arts and Crafts movement flowered in the 1870s and 1880s; at its heart was a search for a return to simplicity, quiet beauty and honesty of construction. This text gives an account of the lives, theories and work of the architects of this movement. For about three decades at the turn of the century, Arts and Crafts architecture and the theories behind it caught the attention of the Western world as the Gothic revival was set on a new and vigorous course by the ideas of Pugin, Ruskin and Morris. Looking back to an idealized medieval world in which the artist was also a craftsman, they opposed the inhumanity of the Industrial Revolution and showed the way to a new future in which the Gothic spirit could serve people's needs. A whole generation of architects, artists and craftsmen was inspired by their ideals of truth to tradition, to materials and to function to create an architecture of freedom and originality.