The essential popularity of the California bungalow style, which made it one of the most prolific housing styles in American architectural history, and which quickly spread throughout the country, was due to its economy of construction that incorporated the combined structural and decorative use of modest materials. Popular at the turn of the twentieth century and for many years afterword, the bungalow is of special interest today for being the home of the American Arts and Crafts style.

In the very early years of the century America was putting down its roots and searching for its own identity in housing architecture. It wasn't until the bungalow style emerged unfettered by Greek, Gothic, or Italianate overtones that America finally had a domestic architectural style to call its own.

In this landmark book - the first on this important subject to be published almost entirely in color - one is able to appreciate the almost infinite variety of the bungalow style. The book contains 197 illustrations of which 182 are in full color and include 102 exterior photographs and 80 that show the beauty of the interior architecture, furnishings, and decorative objects.

The authoritative introduction to The Bungalow goes into significant and informative detail about the development of the bungalow, the various components of its design, the business of marketing the bungalow, and the preservation of bungalow's today. The main pictorial sections of the book illustrate many houses in the major Craftsman style as well as some of the lesser styles like Swiss Chalet, Spanish Colonial, Prairie, and Oriental.

Additional sections are devoted to very large Arts and Crafts houses like the great Gamble House in Pasadena, California, to bungalows with fine restoration work, and to new houses created in the bungalow style.