New Book: No More Giants by Dr Jessica Kelly
We are really delighted that Dr Jessica Kelly’s book No More Giants: JM Richards, modernism and The Architectural Review has recently been published by Manchester University Press.
Jessica’s research began at MoDA back in 2009, when she received a PhD bursary from Middlesex University. Her PhD focused on the magazine The Architectural Review, held at MoDA, which JM Richards edited between 1937 and 1971. She discussed her approach in a previous post on this site.
No More Giants explores the idea that architecture is about more than buildings and architects. Architecture also involves photographers, writers, advertisers and broadcasters, as well as the people who finance and live in the buildings.
Jessica’s new book uses the career of the architectural critic and editor JM Richards as a a lens to offer a new perspective on modern architecture. Richards believed that modernism was integrally linked to vernacular architecture, not through style but because it was an anonymous expression of a time and a public spirit.
No More Giants explores the continuities in Richards’s ideas throughout his career in order to disrupt the existing canon of architectural history, which has generally focused on individual ‘pioneers’. The book encourages us to think again about who is studied in architectural history and how they are researched.
No More Giants: J.M. Richards, modernism and The Architectural Review is now available, published by Manchester University Press.
Jessica also hosts The Architectural History Podcast, produced with the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Magazines at MoDA
Architectural Review is one of a number of magazine titles held by MoDA on themes relating to design, architecture, domesticity, craft and homemaking. Click below for details of our holdings.