The Architecture of Sovereignty

This illustrated book - a historical overview of Scottish buildings of government and assembly from the Middle Ages to the present day - sets Scotland's new parliament in the broader context of the nation's architectural and social history. "The Architecture of Sovereignty" is one of a series of authoritative books on key building types by RCAHMS - Scotland's national survey and archive of the historic built environment. In sharp contrast to the traditional Victorian and early 20th- century concept of the grand, monumental parliament building standing self-centred and in isolation, it shows how parliaments have found just one element in a complex and constantly changing mosaic of buildings of legislation and administration, both national and civic. And it demonstrates how this architectural complexity has mirrored the ever-shifting patterns of Scottish society itself. In "The Architecture of Sovereignty", the evolution from feudalism to Presbyterian imperialism and, in turn, to modern social democracy is, literally, inscribed in stone - in the great halls of kingly power as much as in the town halls of Victorian civic pride and the towers of 20th-century welfare administration.