Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture (second edition): edited by Charles Jencks and Karl Kropf. New York: Wiley, 2006, 378 pages, $40 (paper).

If you are an architecture student, you should have a copy of this book. If you like to follow the intellectual life of the discipline, this book should be on your shelf, as well. Charles Jencks and Karl Kropf have assembled 144 essays written by leading architectural theorists and practitioners during the past half century.

Anyone familiar with Jencks's work as one of the foremost architectural taxonomists of our time won't be surprised by his choice of essayists for this book. They...