Here is the 42nd installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog. Obviously, these briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than those that end up as standalone reviews.Critique of Architecture: Essays on Theory, Autonomy, and Political Economy by Douglas Spencer | Birkhäuser | December 2020 | 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 inches | 228 pages | $34.99 | Amazon / BookshopCritique of Architecture is the 168th title (!) in the Bauwelt Fundamente series started by German architectural historian Ulrich Conrads in 1963. Most of the titles are in German, though many English-speaking architects might be surprised to know they have the first in the series: Programme und Manifeste zur Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Conrads and published in English by MIT Press as Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture in 1971; the book is a staple of history/theory classes in architecture school, one I still have in my library. Number 168 in the series is authored by Douglas Spencer, professor in Iowa State University?s Department of Architecture and author of the 2016 book The Architecture of Neoliberalism: How Contemporary Architecture Became an Instrument of Control and Compliance. A focus on neoliberalism continues in these dozen essays spanning a de...