A classic first published in 1941, this is an unparalleled work on the shaping of our architectural environment. In his discussions of leading architects and styles, Giedion examines the evolving of new traditions; the strengthening of its plastic tendencies and conditions for further evolution; the urban renewal boom of the fifties; and the development of regionalism by creatively oriented architects.

Professor Giedion, well known as an historian of architecture, is concerned in this latest work with a problem that in his view has come more and more into the foreground: the dual concepts of constancy and change in many spheres, ranging from the creative to the philosophical. These Lectures, originally entitled "Constancy and Change in Early Art and Architecture," have taken ultimate form as two interrelated but independent volumes. This second...