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Title: A Land and Life Remembered: Americo-Liberian Folk Architecture by Svend E. Holsoe, Bernard L. Herman, Max Belcher ISBN: 0-8203-1085-9 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: November, 1988 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $35.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Superb, poignant photo-essay of African DPx2 Eclectic Archi.
Comment: What a uniquely valuable photo-documentary! Hundreds of high-quality b&w photos (4 in nice Polaroid-transfer style color) of (mostly) Liberian (mostly) dwellings, from proud to humble, including interiors and details. Also some shots of the Southern U.S. 19th-century exemplars that the return immigrants remembered living in and (mostly) around, and served as the basis of an eclectic architectural vernacular. Also included are some floor plans and portraits of current residents (evidently descendants of the original builders in most cases).

I haven't read the text yet, but the pix are absolutely stunning. The vernacular is as unique as in many of the tropical islands and other mythical locations, but in addition, given the status of the builders as culturally twice-displaced persons, you can feel the struggle and the aspirations of these newly (and genuinely) freed people.

Now for the doubly poignant part: would these folks have stayed in the U.S. had they known what wholesale tragedy was eventually going to overwhelm their new homeland? That's anyone's guess, but we can't help feeling a tug at the heartstrings, what with the shocking reports out of contemporary Liberia (ongoing events had reduced many of the dwellings to shambles, a la Mauritius, even in 1988; we can only imagine their condition in the wake of all the current horrors).

This book is an absolute must for any African American library, architectural eclectic library, African cultural library, gorgeously-produced historical photo library. Slide it on your shelf, and give it some companionship by way of the African/world adobe book "Spectacular Vernacular" by Bourgeois and Davidson, and the delectable "Living In Mauritius" by De Marigny and Lagesse. Both are superb complements to this invaluable study of the artistic and cultural richness of African/American/African vernacular architecture.

Rating: 5
Summary: An Excellent Resource for Historians!
Comment: The Authors have presented the transfer of antebellum American Culture to Liberia via the Emigrants who settled there with the American Colonization Society. An excellent resource for any historian working in this field- plus LOTS OF PHOTOGRAPHS!