The Story of Western Architecture: Third Edition

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful crisp drawings
Review: For a visual overview of Western architecture done in black & white line drawings this book is excellent. Informative captions illuminate the drawings as well. The text may be a bit trying but it's the visuals that carry the day - with many more pages full of well-drawn examples,both elevations, exteriors & some cross-sections included.Scale is always apparent with the inclusion of figures. If it's a detailed history you want go elsewhere. Here the pictures tell the story.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable survey book
Review: I think reviewers may have been a bit harsh about this book. I am a college freshman with no background in architecture or world history, and I immensely enjoyed reading this book - I read through all of it in three or four days. That said, I agree that it teaches little, but one should treat this as a survey book, not as a textbook.

Rating:
Summary: Complex, unorganized chapters and poor illustrations.
Review: This book is simply not worth your time to read it. The author tries to stuff the better part of 5000 years of history, religion, culture, politics, and architecture into one short paperback book. This makes for frustrating reading as you try to follow the narrative, especially since nothing in the entire book is explained. You're guaranteed not to learn a single thing. This book also fails to focus on anything, which results in a bland, monotonic narrative. The hand drawn illustrations look like a seven year old was hired as the art director, and they don't allow the reader to get a sense of the awesome proportions and grandeur of the buildings they so desperately seek to depict. Unless you already have a very, very strong backround in western architecture and history, and you have a considerable amount of time to kill, I wouldn't recommend this book.