American ruins

Once proud and often eloquent sentinels of economic prosperity, America's deteriorating inner-city buildings are, in this unflinching socio-photodocumentary, caught in their death throes. Continuing Vergara's poignant eulogy to urban decay--begun with The New American Ghetto (1995) and Silent Cities (1989)--this project features 300 exteriors and interiors of 70 ghostly ruins. His camera deftly captures squalid Beaux Arts public palaces, reinforced-concrete industrial complexes, high-rise housing projects, and the flotsam of stores, factories, and homes. The accompanying text provides building and neighborhood histories, notes on style, an account of the way the buildings changed over separate visits, recitations of local reactions and responses, anecdotes about ghetto photography, and blistering social critique. Vergara proves a knowledgeable and engaging guide throughout. Highly recommended for all academic and specialized architecture, planning, and sociology collections.--Russell T. Clement, Univ. of Tennessee Lib., Knoxville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.