This book summarizes over ten thousand years of architectural history in such a practical and clear form. Ignoring its price, I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in architecture. However, though the book briefly studies such vast expanses in the history of architecture, it fails to even touch architecture in the eastern world. Asia still continues to remain much of a mystery and covering it would truly enlighten the human imagination. Yet, doing so would also probably double the size of the book, thus increasing its cost to over a hundred American dollars. The book also, I feel, seems to enter into too much detail in the forms of modern architecture. In buying this book, one most likely seeks to learn more of history not postmodernity, nevertheless it can be interesting to learn how modern architecture has come to pass.
An update of an acclaimed survey of world architecture that is a much better read than its drab illustrations, dull layout and paucity of plans would suggest. Indeed, itÕs as hard to put down as it is to heft. The close analyses of Philip JohnsonÕs ATandT tower in New York and Norman FosterÕs HKSB tower in Hong Kong are brilliant, and the authors have the audacity to suggest that the high tech look of the one is as dishonest as the faux antique masonry of the other. This is an example of how the authors illuminate architectural history with concrete examples rather than windy generalizations. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)
