Purchase it believing there would be a history of the chair and its development through the ages.
Very little on the history. The main body of the book deals with ergonomics and future design with very ametuer
drawings.

This book is a really impressive interdisciplinary work, and was useful in helping me buy the "perfect" chair. (Actually one of the author's most interesting points is that a perfect posture does not exist, since movement is inherent in human bodies.) It would have been nice if the production was a little better with more sophisticated photos and colour, but the content is all there. Except that I feel the author should have made much more reference to the mind-body disciplines and meditation. For example, a key concept in meditation is that one should sit with one's back straight because the energy moves up the spine better that way. I was hoping to read something about how that relates to work and sitting in front of a workstation, as well as read about how sitting affects breathing. But other than that, a great book.

Galen Cranz on "The Chair"
Reviewed by Rani Lueder, CPE

This book is about seating and sitting. Having once spent my vacation scouring Europe's museums for the earliest representation of a chair (earliest I could find was 1570), I looked forward to opening its covers.

Dr. Cranz teaches Environmental Design at the UC Berkeley Architecture Dept. Not surprisingly, she cuts a wide swath on seating, spanning history, sociology, industrial design, architecture, ergonomics, and holistic body/mind approaches - particularly the Alexander technique.

Parts of her book are engrossing. In particular, her historical perspective of how chair design has evolved historically [if it is accurate] may be unmatched. Her discussion of the holistic aspects of posture is also interesting.

That said, this book is NOT noteworthy for its review of the ergonomics research on sitting postures and seating. Much of it is plain hogwash.

Throughout the book she refers to us as "ergonomicists" [should be "ergonomists"] and claims the discipline is derived from the Greek "ergon" and "omics" [should be "nomos" (laws)].

It is sometimes painful to read her sweeping generalizations. Dr. Cranz writes that ergonomic researchers "have concluded that the workstation should be an indication of the worker's status" (p. 55) . . . and "status differences have to be maintained, ergonomicists say" (p. 56), citing as evidence two office planning guides written by and for architects that fail to mention ergonomics or ergonomists anywhere in the books.

She misrepresents research, as when she castigates Dr. Etienne Grandjean's "poor reasoning" in Fitting the Task to the Man, writing "Amazingly, Grandjean starts with the slump as a goal" (p. 108). Drs. Grandjean et al's research actually documented computer users' self-selected postures. These researchers reported that rather than sitting upright, the computer users they observed tended to recline somewhat.

She cites findings from a small laboratory study by Drs. Bendix et al. (12 subjects for 2 hours in 3 back support conditions) as proof that lumbar supports on chair backrests are unequivocally unnecessary (p. 109) - but not the many studies that contradict. Minor assertions are meticulously cited, but questionable conclusions often are not sourced.

If you are looking for a thorough analysis of seated posture, this is not the book for you. It provides a unique and multidisciplinary perspective on the context of seating, but - please - take her review of the ergonomics research on sitting postures and seating design with a heavy dose of salt.

Rani Lueder, CPE has consulted in occupational and product design ergonomics for over 25 years. Her activities on seating include co-organizing the Second International Conference on Sitting Posture, held in Tokyo. Her second edited book "Hard Facts" is about sitting postures and seating (Taylor & Francis). She served on the seating subcommittee for the American National Standard ANSI BSR/HFES 100. She consulted in the research and design of over 350 lines of seating. Her newest edited book is "Ergonomics for Children: Designing products & places for toddlers to teens" (2007, Taylor & Francis).

How many of us are aware of the furniture we use in our everyday lives? These are things we feel, touch and see everyday. Yet they are always in the back of our subconcious, we never really notice them, or realise how these pieces of furniture affect us physically, as well as psychologically.
"The Chair" makes us look at the ordinary chair as something beyond a piece of furniture and as a symbol of wealth, status, honor, culture and comfort. In its own way, it shapes our everyday life and things related to it.
The author traces the origins of the chair through human history and how it changed and evolved through the ages. Going deep into the issue of chair design, the author tears commonly held views about comfort into shreds and illustrates how these "comfortable" chairs actually harm the human body. After taking a good look at ergonomics, Cranz talks about the body's conciousness and how it is related to the sitting posture. With the help of somatics and the Alexander technique, she says we can improve the ways in which we sit and improve our comfort.
What captured my attention the most was the manner in which this opens up the mind to different psychological and physical effects that a commonplace object like the chair can have on human beings and how we can improve our daily lives by thinking about these issues.

It is an easy reading and houmorous book. It deals with many aspects of sitting and seats, including aesthetics, style, ergonomics and as a status symbol. I beleive the knowledge presented in this book represents decades of dedicated reseach on this subject by the author. It also enlightens one to realize that a seat is one part of the story and the way one sits is the other part: To ensure the well being of a sitting human organism we have to address both parts. In summary, it is a pleasure to read this book.