We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more
Instructor inspection copy request
Cover

A History of Architecture

Settings and Rituals

Second Edition

the late Spiro Kostof
Revisions by Gregory Castillo and Original Drawings by Richard Tobias

Publication Date - 31 August 1995

ISBN: 9780195083798

800 pages
Paperback
9-1/4 x 11 inches

In Stock

The Second Edition of one of the finest histories of architecture ever written

Description

When the late Spiro Kostof's A History of Architecture appeared in 1985, it was universally hailed as a masterpiece--one of the finest books on architecture ever written. Now, updated and expanded, this classic reference continues to bring to readers the full array of civilization's architectural achievements.

Insightful, engagingly written and graced with close to a thousand superb illustrations, the Second Edition of this extraordinary volume offers a sweeping narrative that examines architecture as it reflects the social, economic, and technological aspects of human history. The scope of the book is astonishing. Kostof examines a surprisingly wide variety of man-made structures: prehistoric huts and the TVA, the pyramids of Giza and the Rome railway station, the ziggurat and the department store. Kostof considered every building worthy of attention, every structure a potential source of insight, whether it be prehistoric hunting camps at Terra Amata, or the caves at Lascaux with their magnificent paintings, or a twenty-story hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

Previous Publication Date(s)

March 1985

Reviews

Praise for the previous edition:

"A magnificent guided tour through mankind's architecture....This splendid book is that rara avis, a treat for any reader and a first-rate textbook on the subject."--The New York Times Book Review

Table of Contents

    A PLACE ON EARTH
    1. The Study of What We Built
    2. The Cave and the Sky: Stone Age Europe
    3. The Rise of the City: Architecture in Western Asia
    4. The Architecture of Ancient Egypt
    5. Bronze Age Cities: The Aegean and Asia Minor
    6. Greek Temple and "Barbarian" Alternatives
    7. Polis and Akropolis
    8. The Hellenistic Realm
    9. Rome: Caput Mundi
    10. The World at Large: Roman Concurrences
    MEASURING UP
    11. The Triumph of Christ
    12. The Mediterranean in the Early Middle Ages
    13. The Birth of Nations: Europe after Charles
    14. The French Manner
    15. The Urbanization of Europe
    16. Edges of Medievalism
    17. The Renaissance: Ideal and Fad
    18. Spain and the New World
    19. Istanbul and Venice
    20. The Popes as Planners: Rome 150-1650
    21. Absolutism and Bourgeoisie: European Architecture 1600-1750
    THE SEARCH FOR SELF
    22. Architecture for a New World
    23. Architectural Art and the Landscape of Industry
    24. The American Experience
    25. Victorian Environments
    26. The Trials of Modernism
    27. Architecture and the State: Interwar Years
    28. At Peace with the Past: The Last Decades
    29. Designing the Fin-de-Siecle

Related Titles