The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place

The American Porch, featured on NPR Weekend Edition, CBS Sunday Morning, USA Today, and in the Chicago Tribune, relates the colorful and surprising history of the porch in a lively journey through architecture, literature, film, photography, and pop culture, from ancient Greece to modern day.
Solidly researched and engagingly written, The American Porch weaves many narratives into its larger story-how the word "stoic" originated, how James Ives got Nathaniel Currier to begin chronicling ordinary American life, how the "front porch campaign" became a staple of American politics, why filmmakers and novelists love the porch, and how the porch, after vanishing from American domestic architecture after World War II, has made a comeback thanks to preservationists and the New Urbanist movement in town planning and domestic architecture.
The book begins with the renovation of Dolan's own porch, which led him on a journey of inquiry that took unexpected directions. According to Dolan, "When my wife and I rebuilt our porch, I felt a very deep emotion, as if I was reconnecting with something. I hadn't grown up in houses with front porches-my folks had a brick colonial and later a Cape Cod, then a rambler. I started wondering why I felt such a powerful connection to the experience of being on a front porch."
Readers of The American Porch will understand and celebrate that connection-in the evening hours on their front porches, if they are lucky.



The book begins with the renovation of Dolan's own porch, which led him on a journey of inquiry that took unexpected directions. According to Dolan, "When my wife and I rebuilt our porch, I felt a very deep emotion, as if I was reconnecting with something. I hadn't grown up in houses with front porches--my folks had a brick colonial and later a Cape Cod, then a rambler. I started wondering why I felt such a powerful connection to the experience of being on a front porch."

Readers of THE AMERICAN PORCH will understand and celebrate that connection--in the evening hours on their front porches, if they are lucky.

Michael Dolan has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and other publications. His documentary script and publication credits include many television programs aired by National Geographic Explorer and the Discovery Channel. His email address is emdolan@erols.com.