Reviews
"A fascinating exploration of the synthesis of societal forces and architectural forms that created the utopian communities in the United States." ---Ralph Muldrow, Sacred Architecture Journal, "Few architectural historians today have Michael Lewis's skill and fluency in the language of built stuff. Precise, elegant descriptions of buildings and their elements, grounded in rigorous scholarship and motivated by the author's obvious passion for his subject, make City of Refuge a pleasure to read. . . . This is a beautifully made book." --Kathy Edwards, ARLIS, "Lewis offers a great deal that is original and often provocative." ---Carl Abbott, Buildings & Landscapes, "Masterful in its breadth and insights, City of Refuge takes a phenomenon in architecture and community development--the utopian city--and puts it into new perspective. Lucid and engaging, the book's exploration of the shaping of cities is as imaginative as it is rigorous, and it will become an essential text in urban history. A stunning achievement and an irresistible read." --Richard Longstreth, George Washington University, "In City of Refuge , Lewis is remarkably skilled--thorough, insightful, and even witty--in his ability to read carefully and creatively the surviving plans and architectural drawings of various devotional and religious communities in Europe and America. This fascinating narrative will significantly revise our ideas about nineteenth-century America." --Robert Fishman, Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan, "With exceptionally good writing, City of Refuge looks at the interaction between two traditions of utopian settlements, those of the Utopian Socialists and those of distinctly religious communities like the Moravians, that have usually been treated separately. This original and compelling book examines the exchange of ideas between the near simultaneous experiments taking place on both sides of the Atlantic, and the intricacies and difficulties of each settlement's history." --Joseph Siry, Wesleyan University, ""Although it should have a place in every collection on cultural studies and architectural history, City of Refuge is too well researched, too elegantly written and too beautifully illustrated to be confined to a library shelf. It wants to be read, and read it should be. It reflects historic interests and informs current debate. Students and scholars of various disciplines alike--from utopian studies to urban design--will find it accessible, lucid, and very rewarding."" ---Jan Frohburg, Irish Journal of American Studies
