Second volume in a two-volume survey of art, architecture, and design by Nikolaus Pesvner. The second volume examines the Victorian era to the twentieth century. "In this second volume many of [Pevsner's] significant writings on the period, previously unpublished in the United States, are brought together. One essay traces the beginnings of 'philanthropic' housing for the working classes and how it affected architectural thinking. Another - the justly celebrated booklet on the Great Exhibition of 1851, High Victorian Design - analyzes the strange mixture of technical confidence and artistic naïveté that could house furniture of such abysmal ugliness in a building of such integrity as the Crystal Palace; and a study of 'William Morris and Architecture' introduces the revolution that took place at the end of the century. The four essays on Mackmurdo, Voysey, Mackintosh, and Walton were among the first to focus attention on these important designers and their key place in the history of modern art." -- from interior flap. Includes notes, list of illustrations, and index. Printed in black-and-white, with 519 illustrations.