Book excerpt: The book aims to provide an introductory overview of a period in British architecture which has been neglected hitherto but in which interest is now burgeoning. Using little-before-seen archival photographs from the RIBA's Photographs Collection, it investigates how architects went about the task of reconstruction during the 1950s and the varied influences at play upon them, from Swedish exemplars, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe abroad, to indigenous sources such as the revival of the Picturesque and a heightened concern for Britain's 'functional tradition'. In a period which began with the strictures of post-war austerity and ended with a property boom, the coverage of such themes as the legacy of the Festival of Britain; the heterogeneous nature of post-war Modernism and its acceptance by a previously hostile public; the parallel robust survival of traditional styles; the flowering of public architecture seen especially in Hertfordshire's pioneering school building programme; the role of prefabrication; the development of the New Town movement; the resurgence of private sector architecture and the rise of New Brutalism; the increased involvement of developers in shaping the urban fabric, all combine to demonstrate the period's architectural diversity.