Traces the development of architecture from Stonehenge to the new AT&T Building in New York and looks at important movements, architects, and buildings Marvin Trachtenberg is Edith Kitzmiller Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where he has taught since 1962 He studied at Yale University and the Institute of Fine Arts. A renowned scholar of architectural history, Professor Trachtenberg has contributed a long and distinguished list of publications to the field. Of special mention is his book The Campanile of Florence Cathedral, "Giotto's Tower" (1972), which was awarded The Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize by the Society of Architectural Historians for the outstanding architectural book by an American scholar for 1972-73. More recently, his book Dominion of the Eye: Urbanism, Art, and Power in Early Modern Florence (1997) was awarded two prizes: The Charles Rufus Morey Award from the College Art Association and, again, The Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize. His book The Statue of Liberty in the "Art in Context" series was published in 1976. Professor Trachtenberg has also been the recipient of numerous fellowships: the National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowship for study in Italy, 1974-75; Fellowship at the Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) in Florence, 1974-76; the Guggenheim Fellowship, 198586; and most recently, the Graham Foundation Fellowship, 2000-2001. An architectural photographer of note, many of his photographs are found in this book and other publications. He is currently working on two books: one on the authorship of the Pazzi Chapel and another on the relationship of architecture and time. Isabelle Hyman is Professor of Fine Arts at New York University, College ofArts and Science. She received a B.A. from Vassar College, an M.A. from Columbia University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Professor Hyman is a specialist in the art and architecture of the Renaissance, in the history of architecture, and in the architecture of Marcel Breuer. She is the author of Marcel Breuer, Architect: The Career and the Buildings (2001) and of Fifteenth Century Florentine Studies: The Palazzo Medici and the Church of San Lorenzo (1977); she was editor of Brunelleschi in Perspective in "The Artist in Perspective" series (1974) and has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals. In 1972 73 she was Senior Kress Fellow at Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) in Florence. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1988) and a fellowship from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (1988). In 1991 she was Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor at Williams College. Professor Hyman has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians, on the Board of Directors of the College Art Association, and was editor of the College Art Association's scholarly monograph series. She is currently at work on studies of late-fifteenth-century Florentine architecture. Architecture is at once a structural, practical, and visual art. Without solidity, it is dangerous; without usefulness, it is merely large-scale sculpture; and without beauty, it is no more than utilitarian construction," write the authors of Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity. In their book they deal brilliantly with this triple aspect of the complex art that deeply affects our lives as the most pervasive of all human-made things. Viewing architectural history as a series of dynamic innovations, Professors Trachtenberg and Hyman lucidly explain the dramatic changes in form, materials, and technology that have defined the built environment from prehistory to the twenty-first century. In a vivid manner both insightful and accurate, the authors bring to life architectural history and the forces that have driven it. Moving between long views of historical trends and closeups of major works and crucial architectural themes—such as the neolithic birth of monumental architecture, the invention of the Classical orders, the problem of modernity for the nineteenth-century architect, and the challenging complexity of architecture at the turn of the new millennium—the authors make architecture and its history transparent, accessible, and compelling. Technological innovations such as the Roman arch, the Gothic rib-vault, and modern ferroconcrete—are explained with exceptional clarity as integral aspects of the periods of their invention. Sociopolitical, economic, and ideological forces that have shaped architectural usage, form, and meaning are penetratingly detailed. While individual sections or chapters of the book are easily comprehensible independently, as a whole Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity offers a transformative experience. Through interpretations that become increasingly mo