A Concise History of Western Architecture

'Architecture', in the words of the late Professor Furneaux Jordan, 'is the product of a hundred circumstances... the architect can never withdraw to an ivory tower.' It is this view of architecture as a discipline uniquely involved in history, the product of religion and politics, art and technology, geology and climate, and countless oher factors, that makes this wide-ranging survey-acclaimed in the profession as 'a tour de force of sustained liveliness'- particularly stimulating. "To write a general history of western architecture is a superhuman achievement... When the result is as intelligently written and as beautifully produced as Furneaux Jordan's book, awemingles with admiration'.