A comprehensive survey of Shaker furniture, which treats the entire 130-year history of this unusual style - not just the 30-year classic period (1820-1850) most familiar to connoisseurs and collectors. The 462 illustrations in this book include documentary photographs, contemporary prints and drawings, as well as technical drawings that explain construction techniques. The book is organized not by furniture type but by community of origin, placing the furniture in its context and making comparisons between examples from other communities - as well as earlier and later works - both possible and meaningful. The text incorporates recent research which casts new light on the Shakers and provides an in-depth look at how they made furniture, the machines they used, and the wider influences on their work.