Books like The Chair by Galen Cranz

A provocative look at one of our most common cultural artifacts, this book reveals the history, physiology, and politics of how and why we sit the way we do - and others don't. Perhaps no other object of our daily environment has had the enduring cultural significance of the ever-present chair, unconsciously yet forcefully shaping the social and physical dimensions of our lives. With over ninety illustrations, Galen Cranz's The Chair traces the varied history of the chair as we know it from its crudest beginnings in the Neolithic Age up through the modern ergonomic office. Drawing on anecdotes, literary references, and famous designs, she documents our ongoing love affair with the chair - despite its potentially harmful effects on our bodies. Part social commentary, part design history, and part manifesto for a new way of living, this book brings a critical and delightfully astute eye to the place where we spend most of our waking lives.

First publish date: 1998