Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments

Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments
by Michael Eastman, William H. Gass

Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $22.75
You Save: $17.20 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $22.73 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Michael Eastman, William H. Gass
Introduction: Douglas Brinkley
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 0847830403
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Rizzoli

Book Reviews of Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments

Book Review: A Different Kind of Beauty
Summary: 4 Stars

This book is beautiful, but not in the traditional sense. It shows well-loved and decaying mainstays of small towns all across the U.S. Not so much the "Route 66" kitchy America, but the regular, everyday sights and signs that we seldom focus on but are there, nonetheless. The photographer took pictures of what was on the other side of the street, and it is poignant and a little sad to see some of that stuff in such a state of decline. I'm glad I purchased the book and I love to remember the small town I grew up in as I flip through its pages.

Summary of Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments

Think of the quirky buildings you pass every day but whose quiet beauty you take for granted-the moviehouses, juke joints, soda fountains, barbershops, roadside diners, and storefront churches. You don't miss them until they're gone. As suburban sprawl and strip malls conquer the country, these vestiges of a lost way of life are falling under the wrecking ball. Here the photographer Michael Eastman has made the ultimate road trip, crisscrossing the nation dozens of times, to capture these buildings on film before they vanish. These dreamy images call us to question what we choose to let go in the wake of contemporary life, with a cool melancholy that evokes the work of Edward Hopper, Jack Kerouac, and William Eggleston. There is a wry sense of humor here as well. The book delights in the idiosyncracies of America's vernacular styles, ranging from Depression Deco to New England clapboard in random juxtapositions that accrue over time in a town's landscape. Countless visual puns arise among the book's many detailed images of signs and statuettes. Vanishing America catalogues great everyday American architecture and design. But it also offers a provocative portrait of the silent emptiness that has descended upon vanishing small communities everywhere.

Architectural Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in my photo books
Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments ImageVanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops, and Other Everyday Monuments
by Michael Eastman, William H. Gass
Rizzoli; Published: 2008-04-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.99
Price in other shops: $39.95
David Armstrong: All Day Every Day ImageDavid Armstrong: All Day Every Day
by David Armstrong
Scalo Publishers; Published: 2002-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.40
Price in other shops: $85.00
Luigi Ghirri: It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It... ImageLuigi Ghirri: It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It...
by Germano Celant
Aperture; Published: 2008-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.68
Price in other shops: $55.00
Snowbound ImageSnowbound
Kehrer Verlag; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $36.09
Price in other shops: $60.00
Saskatchewan: Uncommon Views ImageSaskatchewan: Uncommon Views
by Sharon Butala, David Carpenter, Helen Marzolf
The University of Alberta Press; Published: 2005-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.85
Lee Friedlander: Self Portrait ImageLee Friedlander: Self Portrait
by John Szarkowski
The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Published: 2005-06-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.97
Price in other shops: $34.95
Bill Owens ImageBill Owens
by A.M. Homes
Damiani; Published: 2008-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $40.95
Price in other shops: $65.00
The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range ImageThe New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range
by Robert Adams
Aperture; Published: 2008-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.69
Price in other shops: $45.00
Driftless: Photographs from Iowa (Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography) ImageDriftless: Photographs from Iowa (Center for Documentary Studies/ Honickman First Book Prize in Photography)
by Danny Wilcox Frazier
Duke University Press; Published: 2007-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.86
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Face of Minnesota ImageThe Face of Minnesota
by John Szarkowski
Univ Of Minnesota Press; Published: 2008-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $31.32
Price in other shops: $49.95
Similar Books and other products
Saul Leiter ImageSaul Leiter
Steidl & Partners; Published: 2008-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $115.00
Andreas Gursky ImageAndreas Gursky
by Beate Sontgen, Nina Zimmer, Andreas Gursky
Hatje Cantz; Published: 2008-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $34.65
Price in other shops: $55.00
Uncommon Places: The Complete Works ImageUncommon Places: The Complete Works
by Lynn Tillman, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen
Aperture; Published: 2004-06-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $249.88
Helen Levitt ImageHelen Levitt
powerHouse Books; Published: 2008-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $33.78
Price in other shops: $60.00
The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range ImageThe New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range
by Robert Adams
Aperture; Published: 2008-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.69
Price in other shops: $45.00
A Road Trip Journal ImageA Road Trip Journal
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-06-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $157.50
Price in other shops: $250.00
Lost in Transition ImageLost in Transition
Hatje Cantz; Published: 2008-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.67
Price in other shops: $60.00
The Americans ImageThe Americans
Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington; Published: 2008-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.02
Price in other shops: $39.95
Approaching Nowhere: Photographs ImageApproaching Nowhere: Photographs
W. W. Norton; Published: 2006-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.75
Price in other shops: $50.00
Beneath The Roses ImageBeneath The Roses
Abrams; Published: 2008-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $37.79
Price in other shops: $60.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories