by Jon Lackman | 20 March 2006 | Architecture, Books
Anna Minta’s profound study of architecture, town planning and monument building in Israel doesn’t dwell on familiar high points such as Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus “white city”, writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung‘s reviewer Roman Hollenstein. Instead, it incorporates a thorough consideration of planning and policy. Minta takes a particularly detailed look at Jerusalem, including the history and symbolism of the Knesset and the Israel Museum, and contrasts the renewal of its Jewish quarter with the desert development of Beer Sheba. Meanwhile, at H-ArtHist, Ita Heinze-Greenberg praises Minta’s synthesis of a huge mass of archival material, and argues that Israel’s architecture reflects its political culture’s emphasis on strength, power and self-defense. Both reviewers note that Minta, by building on the foundational work of the New Historians, leads the way toward a critical history of her topic.
