Architecture is an all-embracing adventure without end. It is a story that can never be completed
- not as long as mankind continues to build, to invent, to discover; it is the story told in this book. The history of architecture is also a history of many other things
- of politics, economy, religion, of science, ecology & of art & culture generally
- & so is essentially a history of the world. For architecture
- in its forms & functions
- is a very direct mirror of mankind`s desires, concerns & aspirations. Journeying across the world, from Syria to Shrewsbury, Sudan to Southern Spain, Dan Cruickshank explores man`s most impressive creations. Not only the bastions of defence & aggression; homes for the gods & the dead; temples of commerce & the arts; palaces to express taste, power & wealth; & shrines of science, of learning, knowledge & politics
- but also of mammon & of physical & spiritual oppression & incarceration. Can an ignoble cause create great architecture, can a prison be a thing of beauty as well as of power? These are perennial philosophical questions this book seeks to answer. Ingeniously structured by theme, this book surveys civilisation through the pioneers, visionaries, follies, ancients, rhetoric, scale, survivals & revivals of its greatest constructions. Together, the stories in this beautifully illustrated book offer a stupendous global cultural history
- a history that is full of mystery & ripe for rediscovery.