A treasure of early American architecture, this book celebrates and chronicles how barns became mighty symbols of the heartland and explains how the fusion of immigrant ideas, construction methods and regional and practical necessities influenced the rise of a wide variety of barn styles in the United States. From the earliest rare Dutch barns to simple Yankee A-frame English barns to the polygonal and round barns crafted by the Shakers in the 1800s, the book also highlights the efforts of conservation groups to preserve America's barns and find innovative ways to repurpose these glorious old structures as homes and studios and living monuments of our rural heritage.