Taking history rather than aesthetics as a starting point, Bill Risebero to leads us through the development of the western world, looking at architecture as an expression of social and economic conditions and discussing not only what was built but how, why and by whom. This revised edition contains new material on Ancient Greece an Egypt and the more recent years of Postmodernism and urbanism, the New Right ideology of the Eighties and the rising environmental concerns of the Nineties.

The author's many hundreds of lively and informative drawings and diagrams provide an attractive, informal and approachable illustration of The Story of Western Architecture.