Includes index.

In the beginning: Growth of cities -- Ancient Egypt -- Early Africa -- Classical world: Ancient Greece -- Ancient Rome -- From darkness to light: Byzantine architecture -- Monasteries -- Romanesque -- Islam -- North Africa -- Gothic: Gothic world -- Castles -- Late Gothic -- Renaissance: Renaissance Italy -- High Renaissance -- Andrea Palladio -- Italian baroque -- Baroque beyond Italy --Absolutism -- Rococo -- Low countries -- Americas: Ancient Mesoamerica -- Colonial Americas -- China and Japan: Classical China -- Japan -- Asia: India -- Southeast Asia.

Neo-classical: Neo-classical -- Classical landscape -- American classical -- French Revolution -- Greek revival -- Karl Friedrich Schinkel -- Imperial Russia -- Industrial society: Industrial revolution -- Railways -- Industrial cities -- Augustus Pugin -- Gothic revival -- Monumental decadence -- Free style -- Morality & architecture -- Machine age: Machines for working in -- Reach for the sky -- Frank Lloyd Wright -- Arts & crafts -- Art nouveau & secession -- Antoni Gaudi -- Brave new world: Revolutionary Russia -- Bauhaus -- Mass European housing -- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -- Fascist architecture -- Le Corbusier.

Mid-century modern -- Modernism & freedom -- New cities -- Oscar Niemeyer -- Brutalism -- Every which way: Corporatism -- Postmodernism -- Extremes -- High-tech -- Architects' engineering -- Japanese metabolists -- Classical revival -- Futures: Organic architecture -- Reuse of buildings -- Deconstructivism -- Computer -- Enjoyable cities.

In this history of world architecture, commentator Jonathan Glancey conducts an odyssey through 5000 years of buildings, from ancient Sumeria to the glass-and-steel towers of today's cityscapes.