Richard Ingersoll teaches courses in Renaissance and contemporary art, architecture, and urbanism at Syracuse University in Florence, Italy.

I am overall very satisfied with the book, I have used other text books before and found them either too encyclopedic or too summarized. This book exhibits a great balance of in-depth information and overview. I would and have highly recommended it to colleagues.

• Preface Chapter 1 Prehistory 1.1 ARCHITECTURE as a SECOND NATURE: Sacred Caves and Primitive Huts 1.2 VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE: A Language of Mud, Logs, Hides, and Stones 1.3 MEGALITHS and STONE CIRCLES: Building as Memory Chapter 2 3000-1500 bce 2.1 CITIES of MESOPOTAMIA: Mud, Gods, and Urbanism 2.2 OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: Architecture for the Afterlife 2.3 THE INDUS VALLEY: Cities without Monuments Chapter 3 1500-750 bce 3.1 THE AEGEAN in the BRONZE AGE: Labyrinths and Cyclopean Walls 3.2 NEW KINGDOM EGYPT: Axial Temples and Colossal Statues 3.3 BIBLICAL JERUSALEM: Architecture and Memory Chapter 4 700-200 bce 4.1 SOUTHWEST ASIA and ACHAEMENID PERSIA: A Cycle of Empires 4.2 THE GREEK CITY-STATE: Classical Architecture at the Acropolis and the Agora 4.3 MAURYAN INDIA: Emblems of Peace in Stone Chapter 5 200 bce-300 ce 5.1 ANCIENT ROME: Governing through Architecture 5.2 ANCIENT CHINA: The Pivot of the Cosmos in Mud and Wood 5.3 ANCIENT MEXICO: Pyramids and Sacrifice Chapter 6 300-600 6.1 EARLY CHRISTIAN ITALY: The Inward Orientation of the Church 6.2 BYZANTIUM: The Dome as an Act of Faith 6.3 GUPTA INDIA: Rock-Cut Architecture and the Art of Subtraction Chapter 7 600-800 7.1 THE SPREAD of ISLAM: Hypostyle Mosques and Soaring Minarets 7.2 TANG CHINA and EAST ASIA: Gridded Capitals and Lofty Pagodas 7.3 THE MAYA of CENTRAL AMERICA: Reproducing the Mountain of Creation Chapter 8 800-1200 8.1 SOUTHEAST ASIA and SOUTHERN INDIA: Lived-in Models of Cosmic Order 8.2 ISLAMIC SPAIN and MOROCCO: Interlacing Forms in al-Andalus and the Maghreb 8.3 WESTERN EUROPE after the ROMAN EMPIRE: Monks, Knights, and Pilgrims Chapter 9 1200-1350 9.1 THE MERCANTILE MEDITERRANEAN: New Facades for Old Cities 9.2 GOTHIC EUROPE: The Fabric of the Great Cathedrals 9.3 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: Living Architecture Chapter 10 1350-1500 10.1 HUMANIST ITALY: Public Spaces and Private Palaces of the Renaissance 10.2 EASTERN EUROPE: From the Spirit of Wood to the Conventions of Masonry 10.3 PRE-CONTACT AMERICA: Empires of the Sun Chapter 11 1500-1600 11.1 CHINA after 1000: The Mandate of Heaven Made to Last 11.2 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: A Culture of Local Symmetries 11.3 PAPAL ROME: The Fountainhead of Renaissance Classicism Chapter 12 1600-1700 12.1 ISLAMIC REALMS in CENTRAL ASIA: The Dome of Power, the Garden of Paradise 12.2 CATHOLIC EUROPE: The Settings of Absolutism 12.3 EDO JAPAN: Isolation from the World, Integration with Nature Chapter 13 1700-1750 13.1 PROTESTANT EUROPE: An Architecture of Essentials 13.2 THE DIFFUSION of the BAROQUE: Life as Theater 13.3 THE AMERICAN COLONIES: Domination and Liberty on the Grid Chapter 14 1750-1800 14.1 THE PICTURESQUE: Landscapes of the Informal, the Exotic, and the Sublime 14.2 ENLIGHTENMENT EUROPE: Theory, Revolution, and Architecture 14.3 INDUSTRY AND PUNISHMENT: Factories and Warehouses, Prisons and Workhouses Chapter 15 1800-1850 15.1 AFTER the REVOLUTION: The Ideological Uses of Neoclassicism 15.2 THE GOTHIC REVIVAL: Antimodern and Proto-Nationalist 15.3 THE NEW IRON AGE: The Spread of Metal and Glass Technologies Chapter 16 1850-1890 16.1 THE RISE of the METROPOLIS: Urbanism and the New Scale of Architecture 16.2 LIFESTYLES and HOUSE FORM: Apartments, Row Houses, Bungalows, and Utopias 16.3 THE BEAUX-ARTS: Eclecticism and Professionalism Chapter 17 1890-1920 17.1 ARTS and CRAFTS: Design and the Dignity of Labor 17.2 THE TWILIGHT of WESTERN IMPERIALISM: Monuments to the White Man's Burden 17.3 ART NOUVEAU and the SEARCH for MODERN FORM: Architecture without Precedents Chapter 18 1920-1940 18.1 AMERICAN SKYSCRAPERS and AUTOMOBILES: Mass Production Meets Individualism 18.2 EUROPEAN MODERNISMS: A Dialogue between Form and Function 18.3 TOTALITARIAN SETTINGS in MODERN EUROPE: Architecture as Propaganda Chapter 19 1940-1970 19.1 THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE and the ADVENT of the WELFARE STATE: Modernism Becomes Conventional 19.2 THE BIRTH of the THIRD WORLD: Experiments in Postcolonial Architecture 19.3 THE EXPRESSIONIST RESURGENCE: Hybrids amid Mass Culture Chapter 20 After 1970 20.1 POSTMODERN MOVEMENTS: Populism, Radicalism, and Irony 20.2 MULTINATIONAL PRATICE: Globalization, High Tech, and Hypertecture 20.3 TOWARD an ECOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW: Architecture and the Anthropocene Glossary Credits Index