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.

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

The late Spiro Kostof – Professor of Architectural History, University of California, Berkeley

'Extremely valuable resource which puts architectural history into a larger social, cultural context, and integrates architectural and urban phenomena.'