Indispensable guide to movement's origins

To get the most out of both the Los Angeles and London exhibitions, I recommend the latest book on the subject, John Andrews' excellent Arts and Crafts Furniture.

Andrews dates the movement from the 1829 publication of Signs of the Times, Thomas Carlyle's protest regarding the dehumanising effects of machinery.

He traces its origins in the preaching and writing of Carlyle, Pugin and Ruskin, its build-up in the second half of the 19th ...