Recently, I've been thinking of furniture design in a new context. Well, not new, but new to me. Woodworking is an art as well as a craft, and I was thinking that furniture design is one of the only arts that has no political component. I was thinking about how Bob Dylan's music was important to social change, Picasso's Guernica was a reaction to the bombing of Guernica, Art Speigelman's graphic novel Maus was about the Holocaust, etc. But furniture seems to be static. Then, I thought a little harder, and realized that Shaker furniture was a rebellion against the excesses of the design of the period, and that in its simplicity, the style actually is a sort of revolution, a rejection of what the accepted norm was, and it still resonates today. Then I thought about how Napoleon's conquests were reflected in furniture design, and there was sort of a neo-classical return to a Roman aesthetic throughout Europe throughout his reign. And then there's the Bauhaus school, which was under constant attack by Nazis as being some sort of communist ideal, as the Reich favored the heavy Bavarian style and Black Forest-type carvings and such. Anyway, I realized that furniture design can actually be quite provocative and controversial. Here's my question: does anyone know of any books that explore furniture design in a social or political context? Dying to learn more. Even if you have any personal observations about the larger context of furniture design, I'd love to hear it.