This study considers the extent to which economic modernisation has transformed the rural community. In doing so it discusses whether the distinctive character of rural identity has been eroded by powerful and distant political and cultural forces. This is the first full-length ethnography of an Irish community for a number of years. Since the early 1980s, the anthropological analysis of community life in Ireland has been limited to brief articles whilst major community studies have been published in other European countries. The author has regularly worked in Ireland.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1837.

Thomas Jefferson's design for the University of Virginia is widely hailed as a masterpiece. It is his greatest architectural accomplishment, the summation of his quest for intellectual freedom. The story of the University encompasses the political and architectural worlds, as Jeffeson struggled against great opposition to establish a new type of educational institution. Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village offers a comprehensive look at Jefferson's design for the University, at how it came into being, at the different perecptions of its successes and failures, and at the alterations that have taken place down through the years. The revised edition incorporates research that has been ongoing since the book first appeared in 1993, and includes a preface by Richard Guy Wilson, essays on architecture and education and the Lawn, additional architectural drawings and historic photographs, a foreword by President John T. Casteen III, and numerous color illustrations.

Architecture for the Poor describes Hassan Fathy's plan for building the village of New Gourna, near Luxor, Egypt, without the use of more modern and expensive materials such as steel and concrete. Using mud bricks, the native technique that Fathy learned in Nubia, and such traditional Egyptian architectural designs as enclosed courtyards and vaulted roofing, Fathy worked with the villagers to tailor his designs to their needs. He taught them how to work with the bricks, supervised the erection of the buildings, and encouraged the revival of such ancient crafts as claustra (lattice designs in the mudwork) to adorn the buildings.

The Houses of Irvington- Architecture of An American Village by Steven M. Reiss presents a unique perspective on the residential design of this small coastal Virginia community. Reiss has built on the villages' selection in 2000 into the National Register of Historic Places by examining its wide range of unique and well-preserved architectural house styles. Reiss sees Irvington as a living example of the chronology of American residential design. He believes that the history of any community can be better understood through the architectural lens of its homes constructed over time. The book offers a visual history of the evolution of American house design using photographs of over 40 Irvington homes and nine distinct home styles. The book examines each of these house styles in detail beginning with Irvington's oldest house, the 1740 Colonial designed Wilders Grant and takes the reader through the next several centuries of American houses up to and including a number of contemporary houses in Irvington. Using historic and current photographs and pen and ink sketches of each house style by the author the book frames the houses of Irvington from the mid-1700s through the Steamboat Era to the picturesque Irvington of today.” A special section of the book is titled Yesterday and Today, which looks at a number of photographs of Irvington buildings and compares them with photographs from when they were first built.?The Houses of Irvington reinforces how a community's character is deeply rooted in its past and that while structures can not always be saved, they should be remembered as their stories are told and retold through time.