The Story of Western Architecture

This fourth edition of the classic bestselling book features updates with all new illustrations and three exciting new chapters on Western architecture.

The success of this book lies with the fact that it takes history rather than aesthetics as a starting point. Risebero recounts the development of architecture in the Western world by looking at it as an expression of social and economic conditions. The book discusses not only the buildings that were constructed, but how they were built, for what purpose, and by whom. This approachable and informative guide to the development of Western architecture is a very readable account of how things have evolved through time, while the text is brought to life through the author's own line drawings.