Books by Owen Hatherley

Owen Hatherley, Militant Modernism .  A very good short book, defending “left wing modernism,” a much maligned target on the right these days.  Hatherley himself is a much underrated figure, a commie who came along at the wrong time but a very good writer and thinker about aesthetics.

1. Owen Hatherley, Landscapes of Communism: A History through Buildings .  A consistently interesting take on communist architecture, not entirely unsympathetic as indeed corresponds to my own attitude.  Sheila Fitzpatrick wrote a nice LRB review of the book , suggesting that the author must have visited those developments in summer rather than wintertime.

4. Owen Hatherley, A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain .  I didn’t enjoy this book, so I didn’t read much of it, but I thought it was splendid in conception.  It requires some working knowledge of British urban landscapes and I, for one, have never been to Sheffield .  It’s a smartly written conceptual survey of the empty buildings that have come to populate British cities and I am sorry that I wasn’t up to it.