The Anarchist's Design Book, Expanded Edition (book)

Most of the American furniture we celebrate as the pinnacle of design is overbearing, over-embellished and a monument to waste and excess. These high styles took hold in the 18th century and persist today as cult objects for collectors and rites of passage for artisans. The people who could afford this furniture also owned mega-farms, factories and sometimes entire towns, and Christopher Schwarz asks why you would want to imitate the taste of your boss's boss's boss.

The expanded edition of The Anarchist's Design Book explores furniture forms that have persisted outside the high styles for almost 1,000 years but don't get written about much. They are simple to make, have clean lines and can be shockingly modern. The book explores 18 of these forms, including a bed, dining tables, chairs, chests, desks, shelving and stools, and the two construction techniques behind them: staked and boarded furniture. They are simple for the beginner, don't require a lot of tools, and produce objects that have endured centuries of hard use.

This isn't really a book of plans. It shows you the overarching patterns behind these 18 pieces and gives you a road map for designing your own. Appendices cover tools, hide glue, soap finish, milk paint, tenons by hand, machine tapers and seat templates.

656 pages (200 more than the first edition), 8" x 10", sewn, casebound in cotton cloth-covered boards. The largest book Lost Art Press has published to date. Published by Lost Art Press and printed in the United States.